Oh, I'm Sorry, I Thought This Was America

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Part of a series on South Park. [View Related Entries]

About

"Oh, I’m Sorry, I Thought This Was America" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Randy Marsh from the animated television series South Park. In the context of online discussions, the original quote and its snowclone variations can be used as a blanket excuse for one's own action or statement in response to a backlash or criticism.

Origin

On April 6th, 2005, an episode of South Park titled "The Losing Edge" aired on Comedy Central. The episode features the South Park kids at a baseball game. During the game, Randy Marsh, father of Stan Marsh, is cheering for the team and trash talking the opposing team. After another parent threatens to beat Randy up, Randy removes his shirt and a fight begins. Every time the South Park team wins, Randy gets arrested by the cops and complains, "Oh, I thought this was America."

Batdad: Now for the finishing move! You're about to be "Batdad-ed"!
Randy: Hey, Batdad, I didn't hear no bell.
Batdad: Batdad knows no fear! Batdad knows no pain!
Randy: For what? Arresting me for what? I'm not allowed to stand up for myself? I thought this was America! Huh? Isn't this America? I'm sorry, I thought this was America.
Randy: Denver sucks ass.

Spread

On April 16th, 2005, a site titled "Oh I'm Sorry I Thought This Was America" was created on YTMND, ^[2] featuring a tiled background image of Marsh being arrested and a looped audio clip of him repeating the phrase. On March 17th, 2007, user rawsonofchoice posed a question on on Yahoo Answers^[3] about others' favorite South Park episodes and titled the thread "I'm sorry, i thought this was america!!!?" On September 17th, 2010, the Tumblr blog imsorryithoughtthiswasamerica^[4] was created. The satirical blog features posts that begin with the phrase and go on to describe American "outrages," such as every American not having an iPhone and the price of luxury mattresses.

On July 21st, 2011, an entry for "Oh Im Sorry I Thought This Was America" was added to Urban Dictionary^[1] by user WavedBrute who defined the phrase as:

"Something yelled by white trash while being arrested while wearing nothing but underpants."

On October 19th, 2011, Someecards^[5] added a card that featured Thomas Jefferson appearing to address a group of fellow founding fathers with the phrase "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was America.