Can I Get Uhhh

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About

"Can I Get Uhhh" is a catchphrase meant to parody the indecisiveness customers display while attempting to order at a fast food restaurant. Online, the phrase has been associated with prank videos or used as a copypasta. Variations of the meme feature elements of Understandable, Have a Nice Day and Boneless Pizza

Origin

Aside from being a common expression used in human speech, "can I get uhhh" first appeared online on YouTube. On October 5th, 2009, YouTuber kehayes99 posted a video of a man ordering from a fast food drive thru window. Each time the cashier on the intercom asks for his order, he responds "let me uh." Within eight years, the video (shown below) has received more than 100,000 views.

Spread

Three years later, the YouTube account posted a video called "Drive Thru – Uhhhh." Much like the 2009 video, "Drive Thru – Uhhhh" is a prank video in which subject keeps saying "let me get uhhh" every time he is asked for his order.

Over the next few years, the phrase became associated with drug culture, mimicking the confused, lethargic tone of someone under the influence of marijuana attempting to order from a fast food restaurant. On October 16th, 2016, the Facebook account I Smoke Daily posted a picture of squinting alien with the caption "When you're baked at McDonalds like 'can I get uhhh.'" The post (shown below) received more than 16,000 reactions, 11,000 shares and 4,500 comments in 14 months.^[2]

On April 15th, 2017, Instagram account asslorddom reposted an image of man ordering at a restaurant.^[1] The image caption reads, "Can I get uhhh… a cheeseburger, no cheese… no burger." The image (shown below) received more than 17,000 likes in two months.

On Twitter, "Yeah, Can I Get Uh" is generally used to display a want or need for something that cannot be purchased, such as love or mental stability. However, in April 2017, the meme evolved so that "yeah can I get uhhh" appeared in subscript text,^[3] resembling the type of text used in Deep Fried Memes, like "Understandable, Have a Nice Day."

One of the earliest examples of this comes from Twitter user @designercurls,^[4] who after asking how to make the subscript, wrote, "ʸᵉᵃʰ ᶜᵃⁿ ⁱ ᵍᵉᵗ ᵘʰʰʰʰ killled I GOT IT ANSJNS." Posted on April 24th, the tweet indicates that perhaps use of the meme in this fashion has a predecessor, yet this is the earliest example available, and it has since been deleted as well.

Since this tweet, users have been using the meme in this fashion with greater frequency, generally posting those words above something that they want, whether it's available for purchase or not.

On May 28th, the release of the YouTube video "Boneless Pizza" (shown below) created a variation of the meme. The phrase in the video, "let me get uhhh," overtook "can I get uhhh" in some cases. Within a month, "Boneless Pizza" has received more than 911,000 views.

Super Bowl LVI

During Super Bowl LVI McDonald's ran an add which directly references the meme, with people going up to order getting completely frozen in place as they tried to think of what to order. The commercial was also posted to YouTube where it became the #17 trending video^[5] of the day and acquired over 460,000 views in 24 hours (shown below).