About

Would You Rather Have a Gay Son or X, also known as Thug Son or Gay Son, is a hypothetical Would You Rather? question used in a series of memes asking whether the viewer would rather have a gay son or a second option, often another "type of son" or something ironic and absurd. Versions of the phrasal template first appeared online in late 2016, inspired by the hypothetical "gay son or thot daughter" meme, seeing use as an exploitable over the following years.

Origin

Gay Son or Thot Daughter Precursor

In 2012, hypothetical discussions about whether you'd rather have a gay son or thot daughter started to become popular online after rapper Troy Ave tweeted that year, "#IfYouHad2PickOneChild 1.Mildly Retarded Son | 2. A Gay Son | 3. Whore Daughter."^[9] The question has inspired many memes over the course of the 2010s and is a popular question in man-on-the-street videos (example shown below).

Gay Son or Thug Son

Sometime in 2015, Instagram user dreesheron posted an image macro showing two side-by-side images of himself, the one on the left showing him in short-shorts and a choker, and the one on the left looking more "gangster" captioned "would you rather have a gay son or thug son" (shown below). The original post has been deleted, but was reposted to Instagram^[4] by dreesheron in 2022 captioned "This photo still haunts me from 2015 😭"

Spread

The post inspired a number of variations over the following years using new images with similar captions. On August 26th, 2016, an Imgur^[1] user posted an image showing side-by-side photos of two Black children, one brandishing a gun and smoking weed on the left^[2] and one wearing a crop top and tight jeans on the right, under the caption, "Would you rather have a 14 year old Savage son who smoke weed and shoot guns or a 12 year old gay son," gaining over 4,400 views in six years (shown below).

On November 2nd of that year, Facebook^[3] page GQ Gansta Quotes posted an image macro using the same image of the kid brandishing the gun on the left and a different image of a Black man in a crop top and tight jeans on the right, captioned, "would you rather have a thug son or gay son," gaining over 160 reactions, 200 comments and 162 shares in six years (shown below).

The image has also become a popular exploitable, seeing increasing popularity throughout 2020 and 2021. For example, on April 6th, 2020, Twitter^[5] user @yvessaintlacan posted a spinning gorilla meme using the format, gaining over 33,000 likes and 6,300 retweets in just under two years (shown below).

pic.twitter.com/45mfYUGdsh

— Weirdest Memes Online (@WeirdestMp4) April 12, 2020

On April 10th, 2021, Instagram^[6] user immigrang posted a version of the meme replacing the right image with the DaBaby Convertible gaining over 3,500 likes in nine months (shown below, left). On May 14th, Twitter^[7] user @s4m31p4n posted a version replacing the image on the right with a margherita pizza, gaining over 12,800 likes in eight months (shown below, right). The image was notably reposted to Instagram^[8] by cherryferrie in January 2022, gaining over 18,500 likes in three days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References