Leaving My Body

Submission 11,514

About

Leaving My Body refers to a snowclone popular on Twitter paired with a stock image of a human soul. The snowclone reads, "My X leaving my body when Y." It is usually is used to mock useless advice.

Origin

On December 16th, 2020, Twitter user @KingCrustacean^[1] posted a tweet that read "The ADHD leaving my body when my mom tells me to “Get a planner”," gaining over 29,000 retweets and 289,000 likes (shown below). The tweet used a stock photo "Rendered illustration of the soul."^[2]

Spread

The format trended on Twitter over the following several days as multiple users made similar jokes about unhelpful advice. For example, Twitter user @lorazepamfam^[3] tweeted, "the BPD leaving my body when someone tells me “we all get that way sometimes”," gaining over 120 retweets and 520 likes (shown below, left). User @joshh_mcp^[4] tweeted, "depression leaving my body after someone tells me to breathe some fresh air" (shown below, right).

A common variation on the meme found people writing "My atheism leaving my body" in situations of desperate need. For example, user @ufobri^[5] tweeted, "the atheism leaving my body when i think there’s a demon haunting my room," gaining over 240 retweets and 2,400 likes (shown below, left). User @chuckfug^[6] made a Super Smash Brothers reference with the format, gaining over 60 retweets and 950 likes (shown below, right).

The trend was repopularized on TikTok in 2022, with TikToker^[7] @idkknaatt posted a video on August 17th, 2022, with a text overlay that read, "all my self respect leaving my body when he grabs me by the throat to kiss me." The post gathered over 1 million plays and 250,000 likes in over ten days (seen below, left). TikToker^[8] @bepeanutbutter posted another version of the template on August 22nd, saying "The liberal leaving my body when my straw gets mushy." The video gathered over 4 million plays and over 900,000 likes in nearly one week (seen below, right).