Baby, Can You Touch Me Already

About

Baby Can You Touch Me Already, also known as Hold On, This Guy Said, refers to a panel from SE manga series in which a woman sits in a man's lap while he's programming and typing at a computer. In late 2020, the panel gained popularity among Spanish-speaking users, achieving global popularity in July 2021. In memes, the woman is asking the man to pay attention to her, while the man tells her to wait until he finishes a certain online debate, typically by using the original as an exploitable format to change the captions.

Origin

On January 2nd, 2015, chapter 36 of the ecchi manga series SE (System Engineer) was published.^[1] In the chapter, the character Takashima Momoka approaches the character Oka Shirou while he is programming, asking if they could do some "pair programming," after which she sits in his lap facing him (panels shown below).

Before early 2020, the panel saw viral spread through reposts with the top and bottom parts often cropped.

Prior to January 16th, 2021, Instagram user @_veoanime posted the first meme based on the panel, replacing the dialogue. In the edit, the woman asked the man to have sex with him, with the man angrily refusing due to being busy playing League of Legends (original post no longer available). On January 16th, 2021, Twitter^[2] user @LeagueOfWeas made the earliest repost of the meme, gaining over 310 retweets and 2,100 likes in seven months (shown below). More reposts of the meme appeared on Instagram^[3] and Facebook^[4] in the following days.

Spread

Prior to July 2021, the format saw moderate spread among Spanish-speaking users on social media with the dialogue seeing a degree of variation while preserving the original meaning. For example, on January 18th, 2021, Instagram^[5] user democonchas posted a meme that received over 4,600 likes in seven months (shown below, left). On March 6th, Facebook^[6] page Zarco Shitposting posted a meme that accumulated over 800 reactions and 560 shares in five months (shown below, center). On June 24th, Instagram^[7] user ooctoxicos posted a version that gained over 3,400 likes in two months (shown below, right).

On July 23rd, 2021, Redditor A_Normal_Otaku posted the first English version of the meme in which the man turned down a suggestion to play together in order to argue about Monogatari Series. The post received over 17,200 upvotes in the /r/animemes^[8] subreddit in one month (shown below).

Starting in late July 2021, the meme format achieved viral spread among users on social media, with the dialogue later being altered to "Baby, can you touch me already" / "Hold on, someone said," with other variations also being circulated. For example, on July 26th, Instragram^[9] page evanmemelion posted a version that received over 5,400 likes in one month (shown below, left). On August 11th, 2021, Redditor echo_vasc-sono posted a meme that received over 17,300 upvotes in /r/memes^[10] in two weeks (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References