He Was There For Me When No One Else Was

About

He Was There For Me When No One Else Was is a catchphrase used to ironically measure the impact of a (fictional) character on someone's life. The phrase is commonly used on the microblogging social network Tumblr in image posts featuring a 3×3 collection of images accompanied by the phrase.

Origin

A common saying in American Christianity is a variation on "God (or Jesus, or The Lord) was there for me when no one else was." It is sometimes followed with the sentence. "I (or You) am never alone." The phrase has possible roots in the King James Bible version of Isaiah 45:5, which reads:^[1]

I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

This phrase is frequently used in situations where a follower of religion is reminding themselves to pray, and is spread online via image macros.

Spread

A panel-style macro image featuring both a mutation of the phrase and the Left Shark from the XLIX Super Bowl garnered over 195,000 notes on Tumblr when it was posted by user yesterdaystomorrows.^[2] The macro was later posted on other sites, such as Buzzfeed,^[3] on February 2nd, 2015.

On May 7th, 2015, actor James Franco wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post entitled "McDonald’s was there for me when no one else was", in which he spoke about his short tenure as an employee of McDonald's during his early acting career.^[4] The article received 472 comments as of October, 2015.

The phrase has spread throughout image macros on Tumblr, especially using the macro-style originated in the Left Shark image.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References