About

Yo Dawg, or Sup Dawg, is an image macro series based on portrait shots of American hip hop artist Alvin Nathaniel Joiner,^[10] better known by his stage name Xzibit, and humorous captions that are composed around the recursive phrasal template "Yo Dawg, I herd you like (noun X), so I put an (noun X) in your (noun Y) so you can (verb Z) while you (verb Z)." Since rising to popularity in early 2007, the series has been considered one of the most well-known and longest lasting examples of recursive humor on the Internet.

Origin

The original image macro first appeared on 4chan in early 2007 and experienced a resurgence in late 2008 on Reddit, Tumblr, and social networking sites. The Yo Dawg series has a unique characteristic in being recursive. This multi-layered structure in the Yo Dawg formula makes it reminiscent of the "strange loops" described in Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach.

The original photograph of Xzibit comes from a set of studio portraits that were originally used to promote the 2006 sports drama film Gridiron Gang, in which the rapper plays the role of a minor character named Malcolm Moore.

MTV Pimp My Ride

While Xzibit initially began his career in the entertainment industry as a rapper from Los Angeles, his mainstream breakthrough came almost a decade later as the host of the MTV show Pimp My Ride, which ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2007. In the show, Xzibit gained a reputation for adding luxurious amenities and equipments like fish tanks, clothes dryers and fireplaces into the participant's car, presumably without consent.

Spread

Derivatives

Standard: {yo,sup} dawg, I herd you like X, so I put an X in your Y so you can VERB while you VERB
Repetitive: {yo,sup} dawg, I herd you like X, so I put an X in your X so you can X while you X
Abstract: {yo,sup} dawg, I herd you like X, so I put an Y in your Z so you can VERB while you VERB

Xzibit's Reaction

The explosive popularity of microblogging service Twitter has reached celebrities, Xzibit included. In one of his first tweets he decries his embodiment as a meme ( View Tweet ), which led to the creation of this image macro:

Several days later, he rescinded his criticism, saying "i'm not mad @ you" (View Tweet). In the final stage of celeb-o-meme -- "acceptance" -- Xzibit embraces the yo dawg, attempting to his own: View Tweet

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References