About

Ye Bik Gayi Hai Gormint is a catchphrase that originated from a viral video of a Pakistani woman cursing her government on the news. The phrase "yeh bik gayi hai government" translates to "this government has been sold," or "this government is corrupt." The video of her interview was uploaded to YouTube in 2015 but grew in popularity in India and Pakistan in 2017 as a reference in various memes.

Origin

On September 3rd, 2015, the YouTube channel Stylish Ex posted a now-deleted video of a news clip from "Waqt News" with the title, "Waqt News Deleted Funny Clip – Women Abuse The Government Of Pakistan." The video depicts an older woman delivering an expletive laden polemic against the Pakistani government, gathering over 1 million views in the year before it was taken down. The clip can be accessed via Internet Archive^[1] or in the form of a YouTube^[2] reupload that has gathered nearly 4 million views since January 2017 (seen below).

Spread

The video was popularized in Indian and Pakistani WhatsApp circles in subsequent months, before reappearing in the form of a poster in early 2017 anti-Trump protests in the U.S. The phrase was spotted on several signs and placards, as seen in a Facebook^[3] video and an India Today report (seen below).^[4]

By February 2017 the meme had entered Indian meme discourse, with prominent comedy group All India Bakchod (AIB) posting a tweet^[5] with an edit of the "Gormint" aunty where she is made to look like Che Guevara. The tweet with the image gathered over 2,000 likes in five years (seen below).

On May 17th, 2017, AIB collaborated with late Indian actor Irrfan Khan to make a YouTube^[6] video recreating iconic internet memes, including the "Bik Gayi Hai Gormint" video. The upload gathered over 4 million views in five years (seen below).

The use of the word "gormint" in this particular spelling became common Indian slang in subsequent years, due to the way it evokes the colloquial Indian accent.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References