Hump Day

Submission 20,015

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About

Hump Day is a slang expression that is used to describe Wednesday, which lands in the middle of a typical work week. Getting through "hump day" thus means that one has made it "over the hump" toward the weekend. Hump day is often represented by or likened to camel imagery, given the camel's signature hump. The earliest known viral meme inspired by Hump Day is a 2013 Geico advertisement in which a camel walks into an office space and proclaims it's "hump day" several times.

Origin

Hump Day is an informal phrase that stands for Wednesday, which lands in the middle of the workweek and is considered the "hump" one needs to get over to get to the weekend. Most dictionaries refer to the etymology of the term as North American, with Google trends spiking around the year 2013.^[1]

Some Scandinavian cultures celebrate Wednesday as "Lillördag," or "Little Saturday," with nightclubs and bars staying open later and offering weekend specials like music shows and discounted drinks.^[2]

On December 6th, 2009, YouTuber^[7] Manic Turtle posted a video titled, "Cubing Out: Hump Day," gathering over 10,000 views in 14 years.

Spread

A Tumblr screenshot first posted to Know Your Meme on February 23rd, 2012, makes a reference to the term "hump day," alluding to a more risqué meaning for the term.

A February 20th, 2013 Tumblr^[8] post by accomicsguy-blog also made a double-entendre joke about the slang term, gathering over 300 notes in ten years.

2013 GEICO 'Hump Day' Camel Ad

In 2013, Geico released an advertisement playing off the concept of an office worker's "hump day," showing a camel named "Caleb" walking through an office yelling, "Uh oh, guess what day it is? Guess what day it is! Huh, anybody?"

The original video first aired on April 30th, 2013, gathering over 16 million views on YouTube^[3] before the video was removed. A June 4th, 2013 reupload by SubscribeFor NewsAlerts^[4] gathered over 6.8 million views in eleven years.

Several YouTubers posted parodies and remakes inspired by the GEICO commercial in subsequent years, with YouTuber^[5] David Daikeler gathering over 57,000 views on a video posted on August 6th, 2013, while YouTuber^[6] Cherise Addison gathered over 73,000 views on a video posted on March 12th, 2017.