I Can't Take the Time off Work

About

I Can't Take the Time off Work is a memorable quote said by American Psycho protagonist Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale). Starting in July 2020, an image macro based on the scene began seeing use as the source material for memes, with the line "No, I Can't Take the Time off X" used as a phrasal template by replacing the last word via recaptions.

Origin

On April 14th, 2000, the American satire thriller film American Psycho premiered.^[1] In one scene of the film, Patrick Bateman's fiancée Evelyn tells him that they should get married, with Bateman refusing her and telling her that he can't take time off work (shown below).

- Patrick, we should do it.
- Do what?
- Get married, have a wedding.
- No. I can't take the time off work.

Prior to June 19th, 2019, Tumblr user s-creenager poster a two-panel image macro based on a scene (post no longer available; shown below). On June 19th, 2019, Facebook^[2] page moviefone reposted the image, with the post gaining over 8,000 reactions and 5,000 shares in roughly three years.

On July 29th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @warmfourloko posted the earliest found meme based on the macro, recaptioning it, "No. I can't take the time off Twitter." The post (shown below) gained over 70 retweets and 510 likes in two years.

Spread

The image macro did not see further use in memes until November 2020. Prior to November 21st, an unknown iFunny^[4] user posted another recaption of the image, this time about iFunny (shown below, left). On June 28th, 2021, Tumblr^[4] user badscooter posted the first viral version of the image, a joke about busy posting on Tumblr, with the post gaining over 23,800 likes and reblogs in one year (shown below, right).

More versions of the meme were posted in the second half of 2021, with the format achieving notable virality online in November and December that year along with the general rise in prevalence of American Psycho memes. For example, on December 3rd, 2021, Tumblr^[5] user satelliteduster posted a meme based on the image in reply to another post, with the exchange gaining over 54,000 likes and reblogs in six months (shown below).

The meme format saw further use online in 2022 as it spread to additional platforms.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References