Touch Grass

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

About

Touch Grass, or Touch Some Grass, is a popular online insult and alternative way of telling someone to "go outside," implying they're spending too much time online and it's affecting their wellbeing. The exact origin of the phrase is unknown, but it started spreading significantly in 2019, becoming increasingly popular on Twitter throughout 2021.

Origin

It's unknown when "touch grass" was first used as an alternative to "go outside," with examples on Twitter^[2]^[3] dating back to at least 2015 (example shown below).

The phrase grew in popularity over the next five years, primarily on Twitter and 4chan,^[5] seeing a significant rise in use starting in 2019. For example, on May 3rd, 2019, Twitter^[1] user @flyhinata used "touch some grass" as an insult in a Twitter thread criticizing people who threaten others for shipping 2D characters, garnering over 1,400 likes and 700 retweets in two years (shown below).

Spread

Over the course of 2020, variations of the phrase "touch grass" began to spread across social media, used in a number of popular posts. For example, on February 11th, 2020, Twitter^[4] user @revolvyrn used the insult in a post criticizing a company for using a deceased artist's work after they said they could use it "in the future" before their death, therefore unable to consent to the official use of their artwork, garnering over 44,800 likes and 12,600 retweets in a year (shown below).

On November 28th, Twitter^[9] user @radiantbutch posted, "yeah so the whole “touch grass” “go outside” “take a walk” brand of Twitter comebacks got old REALLY quickly. also they’re ableist. there I said it," garnering over 1,000 likes and 180 retweets in six months. She further describes her issue with the phrasing in the comments (shown below).

On December 24th, Urban Dictionary^[13] user steered-gay:0 defined "touch some grass," garnering over 400 thumbs-ups in five months.

Throughout the first quarter of 2021, the phrase started popping up more frequently on other social media platforms, remaining the most popular on Twitter.

On March 18th, 2021, Redditor u/powfutality posted an image to /r/Cringetopia^[6] showing all the 6 Digit Codes for the Ahegao Hoodie images titled "go outside touch some grass man😔✋" garnering over 1,800 upvotes in just under two months (shown below).

On April 6th, Twitter^[14] user @HatianBhaddie posted a video with over 19 million views from TikToker^[15] @michaeloftiktok showing how babies avoid grass instinctually, gaining over 300,000 likes and 67,000 retweets in a month. On April 7th, Instagram^[16] page @wregon shared a screenshot of this tweet and the video captioned, "'TOUCH SOME GRASS' I don’t think I want to after seeing this" garnering over 400,000 views and 66,000 likes in a month (shown below).

On April 21st, YouTuber^[7] Gianni Matragrano posted a voiced over meme in which he shouts, "No, that does it, go touch grass now!" garnering over 330,000 views in two weeks (shown below).

The phrase also gained significant popularity on TikTok, used in the same way and mostly in comments and captions to mock people who are "too online." For example, on April 28th, TikToker^[12] @gabeyfort posted a skit with the caption, "POV: Weeb Touches Grass," garnering over 1.2 million views in five days (shown below).

On April 29th, Twitter^[17] user and Twitch streamer Neekolul, best known for her "Ok Boomer" dance video, posted a screenshot from her DMs of a man asking to buy her clothes, writing, "pls touch some grass," garnering over 28,000 likes and 540 retweets in four days (shown below).

Surprisingly, I Still Think X Is Bad

On April 29th, 2021, Twitter^[8] user @Noelle_Boossy posted, "My gift to Twitter as 'touch grass' gets adopted by the worst people," and a number of image macros of a hand touching grass with text implying the phrase is used by racists, transphobes, homophobes and ableists, garnering over 22,700 likes and 4,900 retweets in four days (shown below).

The post resulted in a number of replies^[10]^[11] and new variations of the meme making similar jokes about people touching grass, their opinions left unaltered (examples shown below).