Ellie and Mason House

Submission 194

About

Ellie and Mason House refers to a series of memes based on a viral text message exchange in which a young girl, Mercedes Dorman, sends her mother Katy a photo of herself crying along with the message, "Please can I go to Ellie and Mason house." A screenshot of the text messages was posted by Katy Dorman to X / Twitter in July 2021 and went viral that year through reposts and media coverage. Throughout the 2020s, the text became the subject of memes, including photoshops and memes referencing the texts.

Origin

On July 12th, 2021, Scottish X^[1] user @katyldorman posted a series of text messages between herself and her daughter Mercedes, garnering around 200,000 likes in three years. The primary text message shows Mercedes text her mother a photo of herself crying along with the texts, "Please can I got to Ellie and Mason" and "house." Katy answers Mercedes, "Not at this time. You've been out most of the day, we are just home and you were up at 3 this morning so no chance, you're going to bed and you're going to sleep. You can maybe see them tomorrow." Mercedes sends another crying selfie and her mother tells her to go to bed (shown below).

The post is not currently viewable on X as Katy limits who can see her posts. However, on August 29th, an article about the exchange was published on The Sun^[2] including the messages and quotes from Katy.

Spread

The post gained viral spread over the following years. For example, on October 16th, 2021, it was posted to the subreddit /r/KidsAreFuckingStupid,^[3] garnering over 600 upvotes in three years. On December 10th, 2023, it was posted by Instagram^[4] user gary_from_teen_mom, garnering over 12,000 likes in six months.

In 2024, memes referencing the texts became increasingly popularized, some of which also reference the Donatella VERSACE 💜 meme. On February 10th, 2024, Instagram^[5] user quirkyandrelatable69 posted a meme referencing Ellie and Mason house that gained over 8,000 likes in four months (shown below, left). On April 29th, the same Instagram^[6] user posted another meme that gained over 13,000 likes in two months (shown below, right).

On May 8th, Instagram^[7] user senorlennon posted a photoshop of the original text message in which Mercedes is shown with a smile on her face under the text messages "I'm going to Ellie and Mason house," garnering over 40,000 likes in a month (shown below).

On June 15th, 2024, TikToker^[8] @chrissyxsnow posted a video referencing the original meme, garnering over 105,000 views in roughly two weeks (shown below).