About

You Swan, He Frog or You Pretty, He Ugly, U Swan, He Frog is an Engrish catchphrase used to call one person beautiful (swan) and another ugly (frog). The phrase, which is a play on the Chinese allegory, "a toad wishing to eat swan meat," was popularized online in August 2024 after an X / Twitter user posted a screenshot of a user on the Chinese blog Xiaohongshu commenting with the phrase in response to a photo of blogger YourKris and her boyfriend parting ways at the airport. The phrase became the subject of memes that month, in which it is posted alongside photos of couples in which one person is more attractive than the other, or more literally, where one resembles a frog and the other does not.

Origin

On August 7th, 2024, Xiaohongshu user YourKris posted a photograph of herself tearfully parting ways with her boyfriend at the airport, reportedly garnering over 267,000 likes in two weeks.^[1] The post inspired numerous comments insulting YourKris' boyfriend for his looks while complimenting YourKris' looks, including comments referring to him as a monkey. One comment by user "momo" reads, "you pretty, he ugly, u swan, he frog!" The comment is purportedly a play on the Chinese allegory "a toad wishing to eat swan meat."

Reportedly, YourKris had posted earlier that month, "Why he made me sad" in reference to her boyfriend and many of the commenters assumed she was having relationship troubles.

On August 14th, X^[2] user @albertcamslut posted screenshots of the couple's photo and the comments, including the "swan and frog" comment, writing, "Imagine going through a rough patch with your boyfriend and thousands of Chinese netizens comfort you," garnering an unknown number of interactions before it was deleted.

Spread

The catchphrase "you swan, he frog" went viral on X over the following days, inspiring memes in which it is attached to images of people or characters in which one is more attractive than the other.

For example, on August 18th, 2024, X^[3] user @dontborsch posted a meme referencing the game Class of '09 using the phrase, garnering over 4,700 likes in nine days. On August 19th, X^[4] user @K_ommst_3 posted a version of the meme using an image of Light and L from Death Note, garnering over 3,600 likes in a week.

On August 20th, X^[5] user @Pomyo__n posted a version of the meme using images of characters from Gravity Falls, garnering over 11,000 likes in a week. On August 21st, TikToker^[6] @marcelowang0527 posted a video in which he says the phrase in Chinese, garnering over 2.3 million views in a week.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References