Based Retard Gang

Submission 11,556

Part of a series on Based. [View Related Entries]

About

Based Retard Gang, also known as basedretardgang or basedredactedgang, is an Instagram and TikTok page that posts videos using e-girl symbolism to make girlboss adjacent affirmation content. Additionally, the social media page's name combines the slang term "based" and the controversial term "retard." The hashtags #basedretardgang and #BRG were also spread by the page. Based Retard Gang Instagram Reels and TikTok videos went viral in mid-2023, spreading through reposts across platforms.

Online History

Based Retard gang's online presence started on Instagram^[1] with a post shared on June 30th, 2022, which read, "I Like Retards," and gained over 50 likes in one year (shown below, left). Starting on July 4th, 2022, multiple Twitter^[2]^[3]^[4] users started to tweet images with the hashtag #basedretardgang. For instance, on July 4th, Twitter^[2] user @urlchn posted an image, gaining over 40 likes in one year (shown below, right).

On July 6th, 2022, Based Retard Gang posted its first song to Soundcloud. ^[5] On August 20th, 2022, Based Retard Gang uploaded its first video to TikTok^[6] (@basedredactedgang), gaining over 1,700 plays and 80 likes in 11 months. The same video was posted to its Instagram^[7] about a month prior where it earned similar engagement.

Based Retard Gang didn't go viral until May 4th, 2023, when it posted a Reel to Instagram^[8] that received roughly 4,900 likes in two months (shown below, left). Thereafter, the account's Reels gained more engagement, such as a Reel post to Instagram^[9] on June 8th, 2023, that received roughly 36,800 likes in one month (shown below, right).

On July 4th, 2023, Based Retard Gang went viral on TikTok^[10] for the first time for reposting the aforementioned video which received roughly 776,100 plays and 115,700 likes in three weeks (shown below, left). On July 5th, 2023, the account posted another TikTok^[11] which achieved virality, earning roughly 238,600 plays and 36,100 likes in three weeks (shown below, right).

The TikTok^[12] and Instagram^[13] videos continued to achieve virality going into July 2023.