I Can Fix Him / I Can Fix Her

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About

I Could Fix Him or I Can Fix Him is a series of parody memes that reference the stereotypes about romantic preference for "bad boys" and abusive partners. In the memes, the phrase "I could fix him" is applied to a character that is clearly exhibiting psychopathic and dangerous behavior and is considered irredeemable. A female version of the phrase, I Can Fix Her, has also been used.

Origin

The trope is known as I Can Change My Beloved,^[1] and describes a person's belief that they can correct the behavior of their romantic interest after entering a relationship with them. On December 5th, 2010, a TV Tropes page for the trope was created.

On February 10th, 2019, Twitter^[2] user @mmadinab tweeted the earliest viral joke that parodied the trope (shown below). The tweet received over 2,100 retweets and 4,400 likes in two years.

Spread

On October 1st, 2019, Twitter user @okayslutty reposted @mmadinab's joke, with their tweet becoming viral and being spread through reposts^[3]^[4] in the the following days. For example, an October 3rd repost by Instagram page humor received over 12,000 likes in two years.

On October 9th, 2019, one week following the premiere of the 2019 film Joker, Twitter user @TamiDaBushPilot tweeted a joke about "fixing" Joker, with their post^[5] gaining over 4,900 retweets and 39,500 likes prior to being deleted (shown below). Screenshots of the tweet were widely circulated in the following months.

Prior to popularity of the catchphrase in memes in May 2021, several viral version that used the phrase were posted on Twitter in 2020 and early 2021. For example, on April 19th, 2020, Twitter^[6] user @JordanUhl posted a photograph of an anti-mask protestor, writing "I think I could fix her." The tweet received over 50 retweets and 3,100 likes in one year (shown below, left). On September 12th, 2020, Twitter^[7] user @CosmonautMarcus made a joke about The Boys character Stormfront, with their post gaining over 300 retweets and 7,700 likes in one year (shown below, center).

On March 5th, 2021, Twitter^[8] user @nectarina12 made a post that gained over 17,400 retweets and 223,100 likes (censored version shown below, right).

More viral versions of the meme were posted in the following weeks (examples shown below). On April 11th, 2021, Tumblr^[9] user teio made a post that gained over 59,300 likes and reblogs in two months (shown below, left). On April 19th, 2021, Twitter^[10] user @lindseylouwho made a tweet that received over 7,600 retweets and 40,100 likes in two months (shown below, right).

On May 1st, 2021, Twitter^[11] user @kuroskiz posted a meme about Total Drama character Chris McLean (shown below, center) which received over 35,000 retweets and 262,300 likes, also spawning "i can fix him / him:" subformat.

In May and June 2021, the catchphrase maintained active use in memes online, primarily on Twitter, being used both in jokes and in ironic memes featuring various characters.