Big, If True

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About

Big, If True is a phrase often used by journalists to comment on rumors in the news. Its use gained traction as a sarcastic reply to outlandish rumors or extremely obvious headlines on Twitter and certain subreddits in the mid-2010s.

Origin

The origin of "Big, If True" is unclear, though it likely started as a cliché in sports broadcasting and journalism. Futurama parodied the cliché in the episode "Raging Bender", which aired on February 27th, 2000 (clip shown below).

According to a Daily Dot^[1] study of a variation on the phrase, "Whoa, if true!", first appeared on Twitter in 2008 (shown below). It began being parodied on Twitter in the mid-2010s as an in-joke for news Twitter types mocking posters tendency to spread shock at bombshell rumors while maintaining the caveat that what they are sharing might be false.

Spread

In line with the cliché's sports origins, one of the early targets of "Big, If True" jokes was National Football League journalist Ian Rapoport, who often reports on rumors in the NFL.^[2]

Big, If True continued to be used mostly on Twitter until it started finding traction on certain subreddits. In particular, /r/frankocean, the subreddit devoted to popular R&B artist Frank Ocean began using it in August of 2016 while discussing Ocean's 2016 album, Blonde.^[3] It then became a popular joke on /r/kanye, the subreddit devoted to Kanye West. ^[4] On February 21st, 2017, 4UNMe posted a thread inquiring about the phrase's origins to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[5]