U R Not a Vibe Bro

Submission 2,571

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

About

U R Not a Vibe Bro, also known as You Are Not a Vibe Bro, Ur Not a Vibe or You're Not a Vibe, is a catchphrase that originates from an Instagram Story screenshot showing a guy sitting in his apartment window, shirtless, reading a book with a cup of coffee. The original poster added a caption reading, "U r not a vibe bro 😆😆," implying that the guy was being performative and seeking attention. The image surfaced in early 2024 but spread in memes en masse in late 2024. It was mostly used in quote tweets and replies on Twitter / X to make fun of other users seemingly trying too hard to be or sound cool.

Origin

On March 31st, 2024, Instagram^[1] user @wormtriip shared a photo of a shirtless guy sitting in an apartment window reading a book with a cup of coffee or tea. The image had white Instagram Story text reading, "This typa shit piss me off for no reason Imao / U r not a vibe bro 😆😆." Over seven months, the post received roughly 5,200 likes (shown below). It is the earliest known upload of the image.

Spread

On April 1st, 2024, Instagram^[2] user @child_services_ reposted the image, receiving over 39,500 likes in six months.

On June 25th, Instagram^[3] user @practicingselfabuse shared a cropped version of the image, eliminating the top caption and only leaving, "U r not a vibe bro 😆😆." The post received over 3,100 likes in four months (shown below).

On June 29th, X^[4] user @iFireMonkey used the image in a quote retweet that received over 3,100 likes in four months. However, the tweet that was quoted has since been deleted.

In September 2024, usage of the U R Not a Vibe Bro meme spread en masse on social media. For instance, on September 1st, X^[5] user @upblissed used the image to QRT a tweet about a woman reading Homer's The Odyssey "because it’s all I had on hand," gaining over 15,000 likes in a month (shown below).

On September 23rd, X^[6] user @computer_gay tweeted the image to make fun of the Recording Events On 3DS trend, writing, "holding up a DS at a concert." The tweet gained over 164,000 likes in a month (shown below).

On October 11th, X^[7] user @baggybeats quoted a video of actress Aubrey Plaza jokingly reading a book at a WNBA game, captioning it, "You’re not a vibe 🤣🤣," receiving over 93,000 likes in a week (shown below).

On October 12th, X^[8] user @odivse tweeted, "everytime im reading a book in public the 'you're not a vibe' meme starts flashing in my head," gaining over 102,000 likes in six days (shown below).