He/They Of The Day

About

He/They Of The Day refers to a catchphrase referencing people who use both "he/him" and "they/them" pronouns, identifying themselves as both male and nonbinary. Meme creators typically pair the phrase with various characters who give off he/they vibes in image macros. The catchphrase was first used on Twitter in late 2021 and spread to more platforms going into early 2022. The catchphrase follows the same formula as many gimmick accounts.

Origin

On September 28th, 2021, Twitter^[1] user BuffffaloBill was the first online to use the catchphrase, tweeting, "Tom Bombadill is He/They of the day," and earning two likes for the tweet (shown below).

Spread

Two months later, on November 9th, 2021, Twitter^[2] user emonormie posted a tweet that was the first online to pair an image of a cartoon character with "He/They of the Day," referencing in the tweet Mr. Bobinski from the movie Coroline, citing him being made of rats as evidence for his gender orientation. The tweet (shown below) received over 900 likes in two months.

Twitter user emonormie continued to post tweets with the catchphrase in the days following, like one^[3] referencing the character Gazpacho from Cartoon Network's Chowder on November 11th, earning over 500 likes in two months (shown below, left). More Twitter users started to hop onto the trend based on the aforementioned tweet. For instance, the first person online other than emonormie to post a meme within the trend was Twitter^[4] user ECCOJAMMING, whose tweet referenced the character Sumo from Clarence, earning 12 likes over the course of two months (shown below, right).

On November 13th, emonormie^[5] tweeted again following the same formula, captioning a picture of Oogie Boogie from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, earning roughly 1,500 likes in two months (shown below, left). On November 20th, emonormie^[6] tweeted the catchphrase again, earning roughly 75,900 likes for labeling the Dirty Bubble from SpongeBob Squarepants as the "He/They of the Day" (shown below, right).

He/They of the Day memes started being shared on Instagram ^[7] in December 2021. Overall, however, the trend stayed close to Twitter going into January 2022.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References