He Didn't Say That / Movie Titles in Movie Lines

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About

Movie Titles in Movie Lines or He Didn't Say That refers to a series of memes in which a name of a movie or a video game is edited into the lines as if a character says it. Originating from a /tv/ thread, the trend gained significant popularity on Reddit, Facebook and Twitter in mid-October 2020.

Origin

On October 4th, 2020, an anonymous 4chan^[1] user started a /tv/ thread "Favorite movie lines," posting a still image of character Paul Allen from 2000 film American Psycho intentionally miscaptioned "Patrick, it's you!! You're the American Psycho?!!" In the same thread, another user replied^[2] "He didn't say that" (post and reply shown below, left), with other users ironically accusing him of not watching the movie and humorously gaslighting the user that the line was said. The thread received nearly 100 replies, with jokes similar to the original being posted^[3]^[4] by other users in the thread (example shown below, right).

Prior to the viral popularity of the meme in October 2020, the joke concept has been used both in memes and mainstream comedy. A 1997 sketch "Titular Line In Star Wars" by Upright Citizen Brigade^[16] is a notable example of the joke being used in popular culture.

Spread

Later on October 4th, 2020, Redditor^[5] BillCosbyFortnite posted a screenshot of the post together with the reply to /r/greentext subreddit, where it received over 1,100 upvotes in two weeks. More reposts of the screenshot were made in the following week on various social media.

The format did not see spread until on October 10th, Facebook page Nocturnal sleeping pattern 6 started posting memes in which the name of the film was edited into the lines of the movie (original author of the memes is currently unconfirmed). For example, a Taxi Driver meme using the joke received over 220 reactions and 270 shares in one week (shown below, left).^[6] A Pulp Fiction meme received over 210 reactions and 40 shares (shown below, right).^[7]

On October 12th, 2020, Redditor^[8] CamSeag reposted the Taxi Driver meme in /r/moviecirclejerk subreddit, where it received over 2,400 upvotes in one week, prompting the spread of the format in the community in the following days^[9]^[10] (example shown below, left). On October 13th, Twitter^[11] user @TheEpicDept reposted the Taxi Driver meme, gaining over 1,500 retweets and 16,200 likes in one week, with Twitter^[12] users replying with similar jokes (example shown below, center). Additionally, the meme received further spread on Facebook; for example, on October 11th, 2020, Facebook^[13] user Rusty Montgomery posted a Blade Runner joke that received over 440 reactions and nearly 30 shares in Blade Runner RepliPosting group (shown below, right).

On October 16th, 2020, Twitter^[14] user @Carzonfye reposted a No Country for Old Men meme previously posted in /r/moviecirclejerk, gaining over 2,200 retweets and 22,600 likes in three days. The tweet prompted viral spread of the format on Twitter in the following days, largely due to the efforts of novelty Twitter account @TitlesInMedia^[15] (Favorite movie lines), created on October 17th, 2020 for the purposes of collecting instances of the meme. The account accumulated over 42,000 followers in two days.

In the comment sections of the posts, users would often use the comment "He Didn't Say That" as a reference to the original thread reply.