My Father-In-Law Is A Builder / We Can't, We Don't Know How To Do It

About

My Father-In-Law Is A Builder is a phrasal template tweet format originating from Christian commentator and Twitter user Jeremy Wayne Tate in mid-2023. The format juxtaposes a photo of a strange or bizarre environment with a copypasta text that reads, "My father-in-law is a builder. It is difficult to get his attention in a magnificent space because he is lost in wonder. We were in a cathedral together years ago and I asked him what it would cost to build it today. I will never forget his answer… 'We can’t, we don’t know how to do it.'"

Origin

On June 16th, 2023, Twitter user @JeremyTate41 tweeted the earliest version of the copypasta, as a sincere tweet praising the beauty of cathedrals. It received over 18,200 likes in a little less than two months (seen below, left).^[1] Exactly one month later, on July 16th, Tate reposted a slightly altered version of the text with a picture of a different cathedral, earning over 29,000 likes in just under three weeks (seen below, right).^[2]

On the second July 16th post, the modified text reads, "My father-in-law is a builder. He is insanely gifted. We were looking at a cathedral together years ago and I asked him what it would cost to build it today. I will never forget his answer… 'We can’t, we don’t know how to do it.'"

Spread

After the initial June 16th, 2023, posting, many in the replies to Tate's tweets argued that people can construct cathedrals in the modern day and that maintaining existing cathedrals involves some amount of reconstruction. Other users on Twitter took the copypasta and applied it to pieces of architecture that were not cathedrals.

Following the July 16th post, the same pattern repeated itself, with folks posting memes ironically pairing a photograph of some building with the copypasta text but the posts gained more traction and higher engagement.

For example, on June 17th, after the first posting, Twitter user @maxdubler posted a Breezewood, Pennsylvania meme using the copypasta, earning over 2,700 likes in a month and a half (seen below, left).^[3] On July 16th, user @YIMBYLAND tweeted a wooden playground, earning just over 9,100 likes (seen below, right).^[5]

Some posters applied the copypasta to non-building situations, such as Twitter user @goth600, who connected it to the LK-99 superconductor, receiving almost 900 likes in one day on August 4th, 2023 (seen below).^[5]

Various Examples

External References