Did You Try the Medicine Drug?

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About

Did You Try the Medicine Drug? refers to a viral House M.D. GIF and videos based on it which humorously encapsulates the general structure of an average episode of the show. Initially a text post shared on MetaFilter in 2007 during the show's original run, lines from the GIF such as "This vexes me" and "He needs mouse bites to live" have been frequently referenced in memes by the show's fanbase.

Origin

On November 2nd, 2007, in a thread about the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, MetaFilter^[1] user robocop is bleeding posted a post parodying the writing of House M.D. episodes which started with character Robert Chase notifying Doctor Gregory House of a "very sick" patient, with Dr. House inquiring if Chase tried "the medicine drug." The post (shown below), which parodied the writing for all major characters of the show, garnered over 670 favorites on the site in 17 years.

CHASE: House, we need to cure this patient. He is very sick.
HOUSE: Did you try the medicine drug?
CHASE: I did try the medicine drug.

Read full

CHASE: House, we need to cure this patient. He is very sick.
HOUSE: Did you try the medicine drug?
CHASE: I did try the medicine drug.
HOUSE: Only stupid people try the medicine drug. You are stupid.
PATIENT: I would rather not be sick.
HOUSE: You are stupid too. Did you take stupid drug?
FOREMAN: I gave patient stupid drug.
HOUSE: You are a black man.
FOREMAN: This vexes me.
PATIENT: I have blood from my nose that is dripping.
CAMERON: That's bad!
PATIENT: Also I was bitten by mice due to my poor hygiene.
CUTTY: You need hygiene drug. Also, I have not spoken in awhile.
HOUSE: No! Hygiene drug will kill Patient! He needs mouse bites to live!
CHASE: [Shocked]
CAMERON: [Shocked]
FOREMAN: [Vexed]
HOUSE: More mouse bites!
CUTTY: I forbid this.
HOUSE: Don't care.
CHASE: [Gets mice]
HOUSE: [Makes mouse bite serum]
PATIENT: I feel better. No more nose blood! Thank you doctor!
HOUSE: I am very smart.
WILSON: I, too, am in this episode.
FOREMAN: This vexes me.

On May 16th, 2009, creator of a House M.D. fan site "my house fansite, yo" Oryxcle uploaded a GIF based on the dialogue,^[2] which combined the lines with fitting images of the show's characters (shown below). It is unconfirmed if Oryxcle is the original author of the GIF.

Spread

In the following years, the GIF saw viral spread online as it was reposted on Imgur, Reddit and other sites. On September 12th, 2009 and December 21st, 2011, the GIF was reuploaded to Imgur,^[3]^[4] with the second upload accumulating over 60,000 views in 13 years. A March 27th, 2014, reupload garnered over 6,700 upvotes and 375,000 views on Imgur^[5] in 11 years.

On May 16th, 2014, Redditor /u/eradicate posted a remade version of the GIF created by an unknown user which received over 2,300 upvotes in the /r/funny^[6] subreddit in 11 years (shown below). On February 18th, 2015, Imgur^[7] user VeggieNinja93 reuploded the GIF, which accumulated over 2.7 million views in ten years.

On January 16th, 2022, YouTube^[8] user umjammermiles posted a voiced version of the meme that received over 214,000 views in two years (shown below).

On September 4th, 2022, YouTube^[9] user Sylvan uploaded another voiced version of the GIF that received over 470,000 views in two years (shown below).

Lines from the GIF such as "This vexes me" and "He needs mouse bites to live" have often been referenced in various memes within the House M.D. fanbase, particularly in the /r/okbuddyvicodin subreddit.