Bro Thinks He's Him / I'm Him

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Part of a series on Catchphrases. [View Related Entries]

About

Bro Thinks He's Him and I'm Him are catchphrases predominantly used in sports and athletic culture. "He Thinks He's Him" is a taunt used to describe men that are supposedly trying to emulate iconic figures in their field, while "He Is Him" is a phrase used to celebrate a man's efforts as impressive or successful. The catchphrases appear to have first entered widespread use in online sports reporting in early 2021. In 2023, however, the phrase entered more common use, with people using "He's Him" to describe anime and film characters they find impressive. Other variants of the phrase include "I'm Him."

Origin

Some early uses of the phrase "He's Him" were in NBA reporting.^[1]^[2] A notable early use of the phrase "He's Him" is a November 11th, 2021 post by @ThunderFilmRoom (seen below)..^[3]

The earliest known meme to use the phrase "He Thinks He's Him" appears to be an image of a man dressed in a Michael Jordan Bulls 23 jersey (seen below).^[4]^[5]

Spread

On May 22nd, 2022, Twitter^[6] user @pinatafarms posted a tweet that read, "He thinks he’s him meme in real life," gathering over 13,000 likes and 1 million views in over eight months (seen below).

On September 20th, 2022, Twitter^[7] user @DragonflyJonez quote tweeted the NFL saying, "I've seen 'him' 'he is him' used a million different ways a million different times and this is the first time it ever felt wrong." The tweet gathered over 5,000 likes in over four months (seen below).

On December 7th, 2022, an Instagram^[8] user posted a Red Circle Perpetrator meme featuring a cat and Emo Wolf. The meme was reposted by Instagram^[9] page @dopecontent.inc2, where it gathered over 500 likes (seen below).

On February 3rd, 2023, Twitter^[10] user @Saintjon18 posted a tweet that read, "What’s the biggest “I’m him” performance in anime ever?," gathering over 4,000 likes in ten days. The tweet was quote tweeted by various accounts, including @JaydisHIM^[11] on February 5th, who gathered over 44,000 likes by posting a clip of Obito from Naruto

On February 9th, 2023, Twitter^[12] user @jamzinhoo quote tweeted a tweet asking, "What’s the biggest “I’m him” performance ever?," with a video of 50 Cent performing "Many Men" after an assassination attempt. The post gathered over 200,000 likes in five days (seen below).