WYD In This Situation?

About

WYD In This Situation? is a catchphrase and copypasta often posted alongside sexually suggestive content or content depicting a dangerous situation to ask viewers what they would do if they were in the shown situation. The phrase became popularized online on sites including X and Instagram in 2019 in both memes and as a way to advertise OnlyFans accounts and adult content. WYD has inspired similar memes in the past, including This Guys Slaps Your Girlfriend's Ass, WYD? and WYD After Smoking This.

Origin

While it is unclear when the first meme to use the phrase "wyd in this situation?" was posted, the earliest known example of the phrase was posted by X^[1] user @KvngFinessin on June 21st, 2016, garnering no interactions in seven years. The first notably popular example of the meme was posted on December 17th, 2019 by X^[2] user @KvngFlee, who posted the phrase over a promotional image for The MEG showing a giant shark rising from the water to eat a woman, garnering over 7,000 likes in four years (shown below). A screenshot of the post, often with an additional comment reading "die…? Tf else would I do?" gained viral spread, including a reposted by Instagram^[3] user consonancie on December 20th, garnering over 65,000 likes in four years.

Spread

The phrase spread over the following years, inspiring numerous viral memes. On July 10th, 2021, X^[4] user @TheyLuvGlocky posted an image of a massive tsunami, writing, "wyd in this situation?" garnering over 10,000 likes before it was deleted. A screenshot of the post with additional comments gained viral spread, including a repost by Instagram^[5] user memezar on September 25th that gained over 750,000 likes in two years and a repost by Facebook^[6] page Everyonegoals on April 8th, 2022, garnering over 1,400 reactions and 4,900 shares in a year (shown below).

On July 12th, 2023, the official thewalkingdead Instagram^[7] page posted a POV image of someone surrounded by zombies, using the phrase, garnering over 38,600 likes in a month (shown below, left). On August 4th, X^[8] user @Culture_Crit posted a version of the meme that gained over 9,400 likes in six days (shown below, right).

On August 9th, X^[9] user @Bornakang posted an image of five e-girls in a hot tub, writing, "wyd in this situation," garnering over 54,000 likes in a day (shown below). The post was given a community note claiming that the post is "likely to have been an undisclosed paid promotion" to "promote porn to minors." The screenshot of the post plus community note went viral and was reposted by X^[10][11] users @growing_daniel and @cnviolations on August 10th, the former writing, "Community notes committed a murder," garnering over 70,000 likes and 12,000 likes in under a day respectively.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References