He Made Graduation

About

He Made Graduation is a cliché catchphrase reiterated by devoted Kanye West fans typically used to defend him or rationalize his various controversies (including his anti-Semitism and praise of Hiter on InfoWars in late 2022) by reminding themselves that West made the 2007 album Graduation, which many regard as his best work. The concept of Ye's fans saying the phrase trended in memes on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, among other places like the /r/Kanye subreddit, throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s. The line is often used in Twitter replies or to caption image macros of crying or insane characters.

Origin

On June 14th, 2017, Twitter^[1] user and FaZe Clan member Pamaj tweeted a reply to fellow esports player Nick Kershner who wrote, "DRAKE WROTE 2 SONGS ON 'LIFE OF PABLO'?! KANYE IS TRASH AND DOESNT WRITE HIS OWN LyRiKz!!!!" Pamaj tweeted in response, "Kanye made graduation," earning over 160 likes in five years (shown below).

Spread

Parallel tweets surfaced going into the late 2010s as various Kanye-related controversies manifested that were mostly related to his political beliefs and ideologies. For instance, on April 25th, 2018, Twitter^[2] user GL0RYG1RL tweeted, "i’m ngl kanye made graduation…far as i’m concerned thats an intern tweeting for him," in reference to Kanye's tweet that inspired then-President Donald Trump to say "Thank You Kanye, Very Cool!" in a quote retweet. Twitter's GL0RYG1RL received only 14 likes in four years. On September 30th, 2018, Twitter^[3] user PirateKingGin tweeted, "I'll give him a pass for this bafoonery cause he made Graduation," earning 28 likes in four years.

On October 1st, 2020, Redditor _woah_there_ posted a Kanye-related copypasta to /r/The10thDentist^[4] that made fun of Kanye's fans for their unabashed loyalty, earning roughly 2,300 upvotes in two years. One section read:

Graduation 🎓🔝 One 😤 of the peaks ✅🔝👌🏻 of kanye 🙏🏾 hype 😎. Him 👨🏾 and 50cent were fighting 👊💥 to see 👁 who could get 🔟 the most album 💿 sales 💸, kanye 🙏🏾 beat 👊🏼💦 him 👴 by 3x 💯 the amount 🔢📉 of sales 💰. Seemed 🤔 like 👍 the height 📏 of his 💦 career 👨🏻‍💻, but 🍑 that was soon 🔜 to all 💯 fall 🍂 crumbling down ⬇

On December 10th, 2021, Twitter^[5] user fryatside tweeted, "So ? He made graduation," as a part of a thread related to Kim Kardashian filing for her divorce with Kanye, earning over 620 likes in one year (shown below).

Despite all of its aforementioned uses, the phrase "He made Graduation," became a predominant cliché directly following a reply posted by Twitter^[6] user ayedocc on October 3rd, 2022, in response to Kanye's 'White Lives Matter' Shirts. Twitter^[6] user ayedocc replied to a tweet from RapTV about the news, writing, "even if it’s real he made graduation so who cares fr," and earned roughly 13,100 likes in two months (shown below, left). After ayedocc's tweet, various meme creators made fun of his justification. For instance, on October 13th, 2022, the Instagram^[7] page kanyetothememes captioned a clinically insane man in a straightjacket with, "HE MADE GRADUATION / HE MADE GRADUATION," earning roughly 10,200 likes in two months (shown below, right).

On October 16th, 2022, Twitter^[8] user _rodeothealbum captioned a clinically insane Stewie Griffin with the phrase in response to Kanye's appearance on the Drink Champs podcast, earning roughly 12,700 likes in two months (shown below, left). After Kanye praised Hitler on InfoWars with Alex Jones in December 2022, more tweets were posted about the "He made Graduation" cliché. For instance, on December 1st, 2022, Twitter^[9] user spaceeong tweeted the phrase with an insane Peter Griffin in a straightjacket, earning roughly 166,300 likes in one day (shown below, right).

On TikTok

The concept also trended on TikTok in late 2022. For instance, on October 11th, 2022, TikToker^[10] danielkennedy28 posted a video of him shaking back and forth in bed like a crazy person with text overlay repeating the phrase, earning roughly 881,000 plays and 139,500 likes in two months (shown below, left). On December 2nd, 2022, TikToker^[11] fallout_fan40 posted footage from the game Battlefield 5 that object labeled with the phrase, earning roughly 151,000 plays and 26,900 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References