Mad, Red and Nude Online

Submission 36,258

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About

Mad, Red, and Nude Online is a popular way on Twitter to mockingly characterize someone getting heated in an online debate.

Origin

According to New York Magazine,^[1] the first instance of a person getting "mad and nude" online was @ScottyBurberry, who, in an argument about beer vs. vodka, posted a picture of himself in his underwear in a tweet that read "Beta Male doesn't realize when he's been outclassed" (shown below).

Spread

While the origins of the exact phrase "mad, red, and nude online" are unclear, a Twitter thread posted by @robdelaney^[2] inquiring about its origins received a response pointing to a June 26th, 2015 tweet by @leyawn^[3] in which he posted a photo parodying the dissenting opinion of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court ruling allowing gay marriage. In the fake dissent, shown below, Scalia claims he is "not nude under his robes," and that he "saw someone post a tweet that said I was naked and red and jumping up and down and angry whenever I presented my dissents. That is not true."

@leyawn's tweet has gained nearly 1,800 retweets and 3,200 likes in two years. This started a trend on Twitter where typical U Mad? responses to heated argument became "are you mad, red, and nude online?" On November 21st, 2015, @serious_account^[4] posted a NSFW video of himself demonstrating the ridiculous practice of getting naked in response to being trolled online in a tweet that gained over 300 retweets. The video was included in New York Magazine's rundown of the "Red and Nude" phenomenon, posted December 14th, 2015.^[1] Another notable use of the phrase was used by the people behind the Shit Account Tournament in their interview with New York Magazine.^[5] They described Milo Yiannopoulos as being "beet red and nude online" in response to being banned from the 2015 tournament for stuffing the ballots. The phrase was consistently used throughout 2016 as a way to describe people who are angry about being trolled.^[6]