Lamar Roasts Franklin / Yee Yee Ass Haircut

About

Lamar Roasts Franklin, also known as "Yee Yee Ass Haircut", is a memorable scene from the 2013 action video game Grand Theft Auto V. Online, people have remixed the scene from the game and used the phrase "Yee Yee Ass" as a copypasta and slang expression to describe things that look bad.

In 2020, the scene regained popularity on YouTube in X Roasts Franklin videos in which Lamar's character model is replaced with various fictional characters (and in some occasions, real-world celebrities such as Eminem, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Bernie Sanders among others), with dubbing often employed for further effect.

Origin

On September 17th, 2013, the video game Grand Theft Auto V was released. In the game, the characters Franklin and Lamar interact after the story mission "Franklin and Lamar." During their exchange, Lamar says the following:^[1]

"Ah, nigga, don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful, nigga. Maybe if you got rid of that old yee-yee ass haircut you got you'd get some bitches on your dick. Oh, better yet, maybe Tanisha'll call your dog-ass if she ever stop fuckin' with that brain surgeon or lawyer she fucking with. Nigga…"

That day, the YouTube channel Video Games Source GTA V^[5] uploaded the clip. Within six years, the video received over 37,000 views. Another upload, made by YouTube^[6] user ahmehade on November 18th, 2014, received nearly 3 million views in six years (shown below).

Spread

Several days later, on September 24th, 2013, Urban Dictionary ^[2] user PandaBoo411 defined the phrase as "Something that looks extremely horrible." Within five years, the post (shown below) received more than 130 upvotes.

The scene quickly became a fan favorite, inspiring various memes, remixes and fan art. On November 28th, 2013, an unknown Redditor^[4] posted an image of a cross stitch of the quote and Lamar. The post (shown below, right) received more than 2,300 points in six months. Three years later, on May 6th, 2018, Redditor ExoticMedicine posted the image in the /r/gamingsubreddit, where it received more than 27,000 points.

On December 6th, 2013, Redditor ^[3] ToastyJoe posted desktop wallpaper featuring a scenic landscape with the quote laid atop of it. The post (shown below, left) received more than 580 points (91% upvoted).

On January 22nd, 2016, YouTuber GoodfeelsPhD posted a YouTube Poop remix of the scene. The post (shown below) received more than 6,500 views in two years.

The Sakura Miko Incident

In May 2019, a clip of Japanese Vtuber Sakura Miko repeating the n-word after Lamar during a livestream went viral. The YouTube^[13] upload of the clip (shown below) received over 2.4 million views in one year.

Following the viral spread of the clip, clips of other Japanese Vtubers repeating after Lamar were circulated online.

X Roasts Franklin

On May 13th, 2020, Twitter^[7] user @leosleepy uploaded a video of the cutscene in which Lamar's voice replaced with SpongeBob's, created with 15.ai text-to-speech generator. The video received over 448,000 views and 50,700 likes on Twitter in seven months (shown below).

having fun with the spongebob text to speech pic.twitter.com/o7ykuL95TX

— leo (@leosleepy) May 13, 2020

On June 17th, 2020, YouTuber^[8] Hit Content Productions uploaded a modded cutscene, with SpongeBob replacing Lamar's model and the audio from @leosleepy's meme used. The video received over 2 million views in six months (shown below, left). On October 27th, YouTuber^[9] Tyler NY posted a video "𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝙻𝚊𝚖𝚊𝚛 (Original)" in which Lamar's dialogue was rewritten and redubbed as if he was British. On December 6th, Hit Content Productions^[10] posted a video "harry potter roasts franklin calmly" which used the audio Tyler NY's video, with Harry Potter replacing Lamar's model (video shown below). The video received over 1.6 million views in one month.

In the following weeks, Hit Content Productions posted several more videos based on the modded cutscene. For example, on December 19th, 2020, the channel uploaded^[11] "kermit the frog roasts franklin" that received over 1.7 million views in two weeks (shown below, left). Starting in late December 2020, more YouTube users joined in on the trend. For example, on December 28th, 2020, YouTuber^[12] WackyW3irdo posted a video "Darth Vader Roasts Franklin" that received over 600,000 views in two days (shown below, right).

Noted GTA content creator Merfish also lent his own contributions to the meme, starting with the surrealist "Yee-Yee-Ass (An Existential Roasting)" in July 2020.^[14] He then followed it up with a dozen more remixes, which culminated in the crossover videos "The Los Santos Institute of Roastology" and "Everybody Roasts Franklin", where various fictional characters were put under Lamar's tutalege with the ultimate goal of roasting Franklin at his house.^[15]

Starting on December 31, 2020, YouTuber blakegriplingph uploaded several videos based on the modded cutscene involving Disney Princess characters Snow White and Cinderella as well as Frozen characters Elsa, Anna and Olaf, with audio taken from their respective films, save for the Elsa parody whose audio was taken from the 2019 crime drama Uncut Gems which also starred Idina Menzel.

The Snow White video, with audio taken from the 2011 video game Kinect: Disneyland Adventures and the character model converted from Disney Magic Kingdoms, received over 1.2 million views in a month.

Interview with Know Your Meme

On February 3rd, 2021, Know Your Meme interviewed Slink Johnson about his role playing Lamar in GTA5 and how he came up with the iconic line referenced in the meme (seen below).

GTA Online Version

On December 15th, Rockstar^[16] released an update to Grand Theft Auto V which added a Short Trip co-op mission "Fire It Up." At the end of the mission, Lamar and Franklin have an exchange very similar to their "Franklin and Lamar" dialogue and is a direct reference to it (shown below).

- Eh, wassup, can a loc come up in your crib?
- Man, fuck you, man, my kids up in there. I don't want you ass up in my house, nigga!
- Oh, nigga, don't hate me cause your kids love me more than they love you. Maybe if you quit being so uptight and let uncle Lamar give them some game, you'll have some harmony in your household. Nah, I just wanted to get in a hot tub, but now I don't wanna get in no funky-ass c*m bucket. Nigga, fuck around and get pink eye. 'Cause you's a dirtyu-asss bea-I-zee-itch.
- What?

Various Examples

Searching Interest

External References