Downvote Bomb the Fourth Comment in The Chain

About

Downvote Bomb the Fourth Comment In the Chain or Downvote the 4th Comment is a social game played on Reddit where users downvote the fourth comment in any given chain, often under a post that tells people to do so. The trend began as early as January 2022 and was popularized later that year, mostly on comedy and meme subreddits. Sometimes, Redditors will start Moai Emoji 🗿 chains on these posts, downvoting the fourth Moai Emoji.

Origin

It is unclear when exactly the "fourth comment in a chain" game began, but it appeared on Reddit as early as January 2022. On January 8th, 2022, a Redditor posted to /r/TooAfraidToAsk,^[1] writing, "I'm aware I'll get nothing but joke answers, but what's with the thing with reddit comment chains, where the 4th comment specifically gets insanely downvoted?" garnering roughly 16 upvotes in nine months. On July 25th, a Redditor posted to /r/RandomThoughts^[2] asking the same question, garnering over 700 upvotes in three months. One of the top commenters offers an interpretation of an answer, writing, "The good responses are used up and that person is just looking for attention. Usually a redundant thought too, like this probably is, but I'm too lazy to read all the comments to see if it's been said."

On July 29th, Redditor lemmeberedgoddamn made a post to /r/shitposting^[3] writing, "Downvote bomb the 4th comment in the thread," along with a meme describing the game, garnering over 10,000 upvotes in three months (shown below). This is the earliest known popular post asking people to do this.

Spread

The social game continued over the following months in random comment sections and in the comment sections of posts specifically asking users to downvote the 4th comment. Many times, posts about the game inspire users to begin "🗿" comment chains, with the fourth person getting downvoted. On July 30th, 2022, a Redditor asked about the game on /r/OutOfTheLoop,^[4] garnering over 190 upvotes in three months. On July 31st, a Redditor posted a "4th comment" post to /r/memes with an original meme asking users to post moai Emojis, garnering over 5,200 upvotes in three months (shown below).

On August 1st, 2022, Redditor TornSuit made a post to /r/ComedyCemetery^[5] about the fourth comment game, garnering over 1,000 upvotes in two months (shown below, left). On October 13th, Redditor Cobalt_Korkskrew posted a meme to /r/dankmemes^[6] about it, garnering over 500 upvotes and 40 comments in five days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References