Big Is Moving To Paris

About

Big Is Moving To Paris is a catchphrase thought to have originated from the television show Sex and the City (SATC), despite the show's protagonist Carrie Bradshaw (portrayed by actress Sarah Jessica Parker) never uttering the exact phrase. The statement is likely derived from Carrie's perceived self-absorption by fans of SATC and is used to mock her tendency to bring up her on-again-off-again boyfriend Big in conversations with her friends.

Origin

Season 2 episode 12 of the show Sex and the City aired on August 22nd, 1999. In the episode, protagonist Carrie Bradshaw's romantic interest Big tells her that he is moving to Paris indefinitely. Carrie then relays this news to her girlfriends over dinner, clearly frustrated about Big's blasé attitude.

The scene was later reposted to HBO's YouTube^[1] channel (seen below). Notably, neither Carrie nor her friends utter the exact phrase "Big is moving to Paris" during the show.

The earliest known notable instance of the phrase "Big is moving to Paris" is a March 6th, 2024, Dune parody post by X^[2] user @Sayers33 that satirized SATC characters, gathering over 10,000 likes in two months (seen below).

MIRANDA: This Fremen guy I'm seeing keeps getting sand in the bed
SAMANTHA: Make him shower first. Once his balls are as blue as his eyes, he'll start scrubbing his worm
CHARLOTTE: Ew. I would only marry a man from one of the great houses.
CARRIE: Big is moving to Paris

Spread

Parodies of typical Samantha-Charlotte-Miranda-Carrie conversations that end with Carrie announcing, "Big is moving to Paris," continued to gain traction online in subsequent weeks, with X^[3] user @doubtpointv2 making a joke about SATC in Gotham City on March 28th, 2024, gathering over 30,000 likes in two months (seen below, left). On April 5th, X^[4] user @SophRossss posted a version of the meme that gathered over 75,000 likes in a month (seen below, right).

On April 7th, 2024, the Instagram^[5] page @ihatekatebush posted a meme in which Carrie replies to Andrea Dworkin with "Big is moving to Paris," gathering over 6,000 likes in a month (seen below, left). On April 8th, Interview Mag's Instagram^[6] page posted a version of the meme that gathered over 14,000 likes in a month (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References