About

Praise Spez and Heil Spez are catchphrases that gained prominence as titles for posts and comments on Reddit during the 2023 API pricing blackout controversy, used sarcastically to criticize Reddit's CEO and admin Steve "spez" Huffman (u/spez).

Origin

In mid-June 2023, massive protests over Reddit's decision to change its API policy took place on the platform, with multiple large subreddits going private on June 12th and June 13th.^[1] Before and during the protest, Steve "spez" Huffman, Reddit CEO and admin, was a heavily criticized figure on the site. For example, an AMA held by spez on June 12th to address public concerns was downvoted to zero karma.^[2]

During that time, the phrases "praise spez" (likely a reference to formerly popular meme Praise Geraldo) and "heil spez" (a reference to "heil Hitler") gained popularity on Reddit as post titles, used to sarcastically criticize spez. For example, on June 16th, 2023, Redditor Jeremiah_Beard posted a GIF caption meme titled "Praise Spez" to the /r/shitposting^[3] subreddit, where it received over 37,000 upvotes in one month (shown below).

Spread

In the following days, the usage of the phrases as post titles gained widespread recognition on Reddit. For example, on June 18th, 2023, Redditor gsdkilocharge556 posted a meme that mentioned the phrase in /r/shitposting.^[4] The post (shown below, left) received over 5,700 upvotes in one month. On June 22nd, Redditor GooeyDuck1 posted a question about the phrase in /r/askreddit^[5] (shown below, right).

The phrases achieved virality in the /r/shitposting subreddit, where multiple posts titled in this manner went viral in June and July 2023.^[6][7][8]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References