Go Nonverbal

Submission 6,063

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

About

Go Nonverbal, also known as Go Non Verbal, Me When I Go Nonverbal, Going Nonverbal or Me After I Hit the Pen and Go Nonverbal, is a catchphrase used in memes that describes the act of becoming extremely quiet and not using words akin to nonverbal communication and nonverbal autism. The phrase is most often the caption for an image in which a character looks mute and startled. It originally gained prominence on Tumblr and X (formerly known as Twitter) for a phrase about hitting a dab pen and getting high and scared to the point of going nonverbal.

Origin

"Nonverbal communication" refers to a way of communicating that doesn't involve words or speaking.^[1] There is also "nonverbal autism," which is when an autist does not communicate with words.^[2] Viral usage of the phrase "go nonverbal" first surfaced on the website X as early as 2020 and centered on nonverbal autism. The earliest viral instance was a post by X^[3] user @jadevrisrezi on December 28th, 2020, gaining roughly 1,200 likes in three years (shown below).

Spread

Viral usage of the phrase resurfaced again in late 2022 on X when X^[4] user @DailySnailies posted about going nonverbal on December 19th, 2022, gaining roughly 1,500 likes in eight months (shown below, left). On February 7th, 2023, X^[5] user @nehfuhrus wrote, "you ever get so excited you go non verbal," gaining roughly 1,000 likes in six months (shown below, right).

On April 19th, 2023, Tumblr^[6] user thankyrluckystarz posted a meme, that looked like an X screenshot, reading, "me after I hit the pen and go non verbal," in reference to dab pens with THC wax. The post gained roughly 56,800 notes in four months (shown below, left). On April 20th, Instagram^[7] user @rrmeggy reposted the meme, gaining roughly 351,300 likes in a similar timeframe. Thereafter, meme creators used variations of the phrase, such as X^[8] user @Cyb4rAnGeL on April 24th, gaining roughly 41,500 likes in four months (shown below, right).

Viral, memetic usage of "go nonverbal" started to surface on TikTok^[9] continuing into 2023.