About

"Words Can't Hurt Me These Shades Are Gucci" is a catchphrase associated with characters wearing sunglasses. It initially started as a parody image macro of the anime Yu Yu Hakusho before growing to include various other characters.

Origin

The original image comes from the fifth episode of the 1992 anime series Yu Yu Hakusho, first aired on November 7th. In the episode, main character Yusuke Urameshi walks down the street while wearing sunglasses.

On April 18th, 2015, Tumblr blog yuyufashion^[1] uploaded a screenshot of the character with the caption "Words can't hurt me, my shades are gucci." The post gained over 293,000 notes (shown below).

Spread

As the image spread, its quote began seeing use outside of the original context. On April 8th, 2016, Filthy Frank posted a video in which he reads hate mail. After reading several mean comments, he says "Words can't hurt me, these shades are gucci." The video has over 8.4 million views (shown below).

Several Twitter recreated the joke by posting selfies of themselves in sunglasses with the caption. On March 15th, 2017, Twitter user @hoopknaap^[2] tweeted selfies of themselves with the caption, gaining 9 retweets and 30 likes (shown below, left). Twitter user @faithmbailey02^[3] did the same on August 8th, 2017 and gained 27 retweets and 237 likes (shown below, right).

Another popular series of jokes involves applying the phrase to any character, particularly anime characters. DeviantArt user DottedClouds^[4] uploaded a drawing of Marth from the Fire Emblem series with the phrase on January 8th, 2017 (shown below, left). On January 2nd, Facebook page Ikutsuki^[5] uploaded a picture in which the character Hau from Pokémon Sun and Moon has his eyes covered by two Pokéballs on the HUD screen, making it appear as though he were wearing sunglasses. The post, which included the caption gained over 490 likes and reactions (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References