About

You Hate to See It is a catchphrase, which began seeing widespread use on Twitter in the latter half of the 2010s as a way to imply disappointment, though it is often sarcastically used to imply schadenfreude at other's misfortune.

Origin

While the phrase "you hate to see it" has been used online in a traditional way of commenting on misfortune, one of the earliest known joke uses of the phrase was posted by @Males_Thoughts^[1] on December 1st, 2012 about a man groping an older woman (shown below).

Precursor

The term may have originated from sports subcultures. The phrase has been used by players and commentators discussing injuries^[2] and blunders. In Scrubs, Dr. Cox says the line about using a urinal while wearing sandals, calling it a "rookie mistake."

Spread

The phrase continued seeing use in sports subcultures throughout the early and mid-2010s. For example, a May 24th, 2016 post by @DonevanOreilly^[3] comparing Steph Curry to Bow Wow in Like Mike used the phrase, gaining over 30 retweets (shown below, left). A December 3rd, 2016 tweet by @Pistolsguys^[4] used the joke about a dropped football pass (shown below, right).

On February 11th, 2018, Urban Dictionary user D0nPianta added a definition to the site,^[5] defining it as "An all encompassing phrase consisting of anything you dislike to observe" (shown below).

It was around this time that the phrase began seeing use with a broader range of topics. On February 5th, 2018, Twitter user @Nitrocitys^[6] tweeted it about a man failing to flirt with a woman on Twitter, gaining over 350 retweets and 1,000 likes (shown below, left). On May 28th, 2019, Twitter user @Julian_Epp^[7] used it to poke fun of gamers turning on Donald Trump for threatening to raise tariffs on gaming consoles, gaining over 2,200 retweets and 13,000 likes (shown below, right). On June 7th, Daily Dot^[8] covered the spread of the meme.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References