Into The Trash It Goes / Opinion Discarded

About

Into The Trash It Goes / Opinion Discarded is a popular online catchphrase associated with various images of American illusionist Penn Jillette used to discredit a person's opinion. The phrase was first used on 4chan's /tv/ board in 2013, becoming a common online phrase in the following years where it spread to other platforms and sites.

Origin

On February 16th, 2013, an anonymous user of 4chan's /tv/^[1] board posted an image of comedy magician Penn Jillette's photograph along with a greentext story about being a job recruiter, looking at a resume that lists "cinema or TV shows" under the "hobbies" section, and throws the resume out, illustrated by the phrase, "into the trash it goes" (shown below). This is the earliest known post using the phrase.

The post inspired numerous others following the same format of uploading an image of Penn Jillette (often the same photograph, but not always) and writing a greentext story about looking at a resume with something undesirable or cringeworthy on it, ending each with a variation of the phrase "into the trash it goes" (examples from March 2013 shown below).^[3][4]

Spread

The format soon spread to other 4chan boards like /pol/] and expanded to include jokes about situations beyond film and TV (December 2013 example from /pol/ shown below).

The associated image of Jillette became more complex as the meme spread, involving various photoshops and effects (examples shown below). Due to its origin on 4chan, the meme is often paired with Doom Paul, where edits use similar effects.

Opinion Discarded

One of the most widespread variations of the meme features a photoshop of Penn Jillette standing beside a trashcan filled with 4chan posts alongside the caption, "opinion discarded" (shown below). The origin post of the image is currently unknown.

The image inspired numerous variations featuring other characters and photoshops of Jillette standing next to a trash can (examples shown below, left and center) including a popular version of Kyoko Toshino from the anime YuriYuri wearing a tomato suit (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References