Can I Come Over and Stare at You Like This

Submission 2,914

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

About

Can I Come Over and Stare at You Like This is a catchphrase popularized in a series of Twitter / X memes that pair the phrase with a funny image of a subject, often an animal or person, staring intensely at the viewer. The meme first appeared on X in July 2023 and became increasingly popularized throughout the year leading into 2024. Many examples of the meme notably use preexisting staring animal images.

Origin

On July 5th, 2023, X^[1] user @vonasterrors posted an image of a cat with distorted, wide eyes, captioned, "can I come over n stare at U like dis," garnering over 37,000 likes in six months (shown below). This is the earliest known example of the meme.

Spread

Memes using the phrase spread over the following months on X, also spreading to other platforms. On July 14th, 2023, X^[2] user @equine__dentist posted a version of the meme using the Sad SpongeBob image, garnering over 14,000 likes in six months (shown below, left). On August 3rd, Instagram^[3] user botoxqueen1968 posted a version of the meme that garnered over 670,000 likes in five months (shown below, right).

On October 6th, X^[4] user @whotfisjovana posted a version of the meme featuring a staring cat, garnering over 27,000 likes in three months. On November 10th, X^[5] user @northstardoll posted a version of the meme that gained over 69,000 likes in two months. On November 19th, Instagram^[6] user callduckofficial posted a version of the meme that gained over a million likes in the same span of time (shown below).

On December 27th, 2023, X^[7] user @StreamBadflower posted a version of the meme featuring the Moo Moo Meadows cow, which was reposted by Instagram^[8] user ohgod the next day, garnering over 387,000 likes in a month and by Instagram^[9] user 3.1415926535897932384626433832 on January 7th, 2024, garnering over 100,000 likes in four days (shown below).