About

Why TF You Ain't Eat It Cold? is a viral video of an argument between two children, Lil Pookie and Ethan, where Pookie criticizes Ethan for burning a ham sandwich, notably saying, "Why the fuck you ain't eat it cold?" The video first went viral in early 2017 and continued to spread over the following years, resulting in parodies, memes and follow-up interviews with Pookie and Ethan.

Origin

It is unclear when the video was first uploaded online. The earliest piece of available content about the video is a meme posted to /r/BlackPeopleTwitter^[1] on that date, garnering over 120 upvotes in six years. One commenter links to a now-deleted, unarchived X^[2] post by user @PhillyTheBoss as context for the meme, suggesting the X user may have been the original uploader.

On January 18th, 2017, Instagram^[3][4] user alldef posted the full video in two parts, garnering over 11,000 likes on the first part and 26,000 likes on the second. This is the earliest available upload of the video. The video was picked up and posted by WorldStarHipHop sometime around this date, causing it to go viral, although the exact date of the post is unknown. A high-quality reupload of the full video was posted to YouTube^[5] in February, garnering over 113,800 views in six years (shown below).

The video shows Instagram^[6] user PookieGoHard and a boy named Ethan fighting. The two friends were interviewed by YouTuber^[7] CTT Media Group on January 30th, 2017, where they elaborate on the video and claim it was real, garnering over 38,000 views in six years (shown below).

Spread

The video gained notable virality throughout January and February 2017. On January 20th, 2017, YouTuber^[8] OfficialKennyL reacted to the video, garnering over 41,600 views in six years. On January 21st, YouTuber^[9] Cartoon Tutor Babi posted an animation based on the video, garnering over 66,500 views in the same span of time (shown below, left). On January 24th, YouTuber^[10] MAINE TV posted a rap music video starring Pookie, garnering over 110,000 views in six years (shown below, right).

On March 9th, 2021, TIkToker^[11] @bbqchickenthethird posted a video where he recites the argument between the two boys while the video plays, garnering over 5.6 million views in two years (shown below).

On July 28th, 2023, YouTuber^[12] Simply Wavy posted an interview with Lil Pookie where he explains the meme and how it went viral, garnering over 503,000 views in three months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References