About

X Challenge (Impossible) is a phrasal template that is used as a means to call attention to someone's or something's tendency to act in a certain way. The catchphrase is also often used to criticize someone or a group and to issue an ironic challenge to them. The variations of the phrase "X Challenge, Impossible" originated from YouTube clickbait Try Not To Laugh videos, which would often tack on a word to denote the difficulty of the challenge. The phrase then entered mainstream internet slang in memes and Twitter discourse, primarily during the early 2020s.

Origin

On February 21st, 2009, YouTube^[1] account ExsertTortoise1 posted a Try Not To Laugh challenge video with the title, "TRY NOT TO LAUGH MEGA CHALLENGE, IMPOSSIBLE." The upload is the first known use of a phrase that incorporates the specific words "challenge" and "impossible." The upload gathered over 5,000 views in 12 years (seen below, left). On February 12th, 2012, YouTuber^[2] JasonCraigVideos uploaded the first viral video to use the aforementioned words in a title, including the parenthesis around the word "impossible." His upload was titled "Try Not To Laugh Challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)," and it gathered over 800,000 views in over 10 years (seen below, right).

While people have parodied this YouTube video title format since the inception of such challenge videos,^[3] the first viral instance of someone using the specific phrase "x challenge (impossible)" appeared on Twitter on June 20th, 2021. Twitter user @TheRightCant^[4] posted a meme about Ben Shapiro alongside a caption that read, "Ben Shapiro get a new joke challenge (impossible)." The post gathered over 14,000 likes and 1,000 retweets in over a year (seen below).

Spread

On July 2nd, 2021, Twitter^[5] user @jarvis posted a tweet that read, "don't interview a rapist challenge (impossible)." The tweet gathered over 30,000 likes and 1,400 retweets in over a year (seen below, left). On September 3rd, Twitter^[6] user @KingGeoshi64 posted a tweet using the phrase as well, gathering over 3,000 likes and 500 retweets in one year (seen below, right).

The phrase continued to gain traction into 2022, with Instagram^[7] page @foreverwilin posting a screenshot of their own tweet on March 23rd, 2022, and gathering over 100,000 likes in six months (seen below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References