Bro Is Flabbergasted

About

Bro Is Flabbergasted or Sis Is Flabbergasted is a catchphrase used most often as a caption in videos and image macros to express shock, confusion or surprise over something. The phrase first became popularized on TikTok in late 2021, spreading over the following months. In 2022, it became further popularized through reaction images, usually attached to images of characters with shocked expressions.

Origin

On September 15th, 2021, TikToker^[1] @metrezzz posted a video of a penguin standing in the middle of a field watching the sunset with Snapchat banner captions reading, "He is on the wrong side of the world" and "Bro is flabbergasted," garnering over 3.6 million views in just over a year (shown below). This is one of the earliest viral examples of the phrase relating to memes. The video gained viral spread, including a repost to Instagram^[2] page memixes on September 17th, garnering over 62,000 views and 16,000 likes in roughly the same span of time.

Spread

The phrase spread over the following months, particularly on TikTok. For example, on December 17th, 2021, TikToker^[3] @jackbaumannn posted a video of a man dressed as Spider-Man with a suit jacket over the costume going to the premiere of Spider-Man: No Way Home that uses the phrase, garnering over 10 million views in a year (shown below).

On March 6th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user @OnTheDownLoTho posted a screenshot of Spider-Man from the @jackbaumannn video next to a recreation of it, writing, "‼️BOUT TO C BLUE JUSTICE‼️," garnering over 6,300 likes in a year (shown below, left and right).

The catchphrase continued to spread on TikTok as a caption, often used on videos where someone is confused by something. For example, on August 22nd, the @barstoolsports TikTok^[5] page reposted a video by @kfcradio with the caption, garnering over 6.1 million views in five months. The caption also started to appear on image macros and reaction images, sometimes with "bro" replaced by "sis." On December 22nd, 2022, Instagram^[6] user wheatzies posted a Bocchi the Rock! version of the meme that garnered over 4,900 likes in three weeks (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References