If You Play as a Girl in Video Games ... I Have News For You

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About

If You Play as a Girl in Video Games … I Have News For You is a bait-and-switch phrasal template popular on Twitter / X in which a person lays out three signs a man might be a transgender woman, then says, "I have news for you," before relating a news story completely unrelated to the leadup. The meme format emerged in early 2022, spreading over the following years.

Origin

On January 18th, 2022, Twitter user @lizardmancer posted the earliest known iteration of the meme, tweeting, "if you play as a girl in video games, have a fascination with feminine clothing, and "wish you were a girl", I have some news for you:", ending with the punchline "Researchers Discover 2 Billion Year Old Nuclear Reactor In Africa."

It is unknown how many likes and retweets the tweet received, but screenshots of the tweet include the timestamp marking it as the first tweet to use the "If you play as a girl in video games" copypasta. It was then reposted to iFunny^[1] on January 22nd, 2022 (shown below).

Spread

Over the following two years, the copypasta remained prevalent on Twitter, with many iterations racking up thousands of likes and retweets. For example, on July 11th, 2022, Twitter user @persimmonfans^[2] posted an example that ended with, "NASA reveals deepest and sharpest image of the distant universe taken by James Webb Space Telescope," gaining over 4,900 retweets and 44,000 likes in two years (shown below, top).

On September 28th, Twitter user @_UncivilServant^[3] posted an example that ended with, "An extreme wind warning is in effect for Cape Coral FL, Lehigh Acres FL, Fort Myers FL until 6:00 PM EDT for extremely dangerous hurricane winds," gaining over 10,000 retweets and 97,000 likes in nearly two years (shown below, bottom).

The meme continued to see popularity into 2024. On March 15th, 2024, Twitter user @snakey^[4] posted the joke with the punchline, "Australian farm grows world's biggest blueberry," gaining over 1,400 retweets and 11,000 likes in three months (shown below, top).

On June 5th, Twitter user @potemkingears^[5] used it with the punchline, "potemkin in guilty gear strive is a high reward grappler who opens up his opponents using a powerful strike throw mixup with his potemkin buster," gaining over 3,100 retweets and 19,000 likes in one day (shown below, bottom).