Greater-than Sign Tweets

Submission 19,867

Part of a series on Twitter / X. [View Related Entries]

About

Greater-than Sign Tweets refers to multi-image tweets in which users compare two things through use of the greater-than sign (">"). The tweet format gained initial popularity in April 2020, again becoming viral in December 2020.

Origin

The exact origin of the format is unknown. On October 25th, 2019, Twitter^[1] user @IronNinja2000 posted one of the earliest multi-image tweets which used an image of the greater-than sign to compare two things against each other, using it to express preference for Back to the Future trilogy over Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (tweet shown below).

Spread

The format did not see viral spread until April 2020, when it gained global popularity with users on Twitter. For example, on April 10th, 2020, Twitter^[2] user @twiitankara posted a Turkish meme that received over 70 retweets and 1,200 likes in nine months (shown below, left). On April 29th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @stoesselipka posted a Polish meme that gained over 300 retweets and 1,200 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

The format received a further surge in popularity in December 2020 following a December 2nd tweet^[4] by user @_playgirlcarti that received over 3,500 retweets and 27,200 likes in one month (shown below).

In December 2020, a number of viral tweets utilizing the format were posted.

Please Work

Please Work refers to a series of posts that contain multiple, autonomous animated images, such as APNGs and GIFs or images that, when placed together, create one, larger composite image. Users captioned these posts, which went viral on Twitter in December 2019, "please work" in reference to whether the effect will be successful or not.

Meme Arrows

Meme Arrow is a popular misnomer for the greater-than symbol (">") typically used when expressing implicit statements on 4chan and Reddit. At first, the term was mostly used by outsiders of the aforementioned communities who are unfamiliar with the concept of greentext stories. However, the term "meme arrow" has since been adopted by those who identify themselves with imageboard cultures as well.