Wake Up And Choose Violence

About

Wake Up and Choose Violence is a catchphrase used online to describe a person or animal who is particularly mean-spirited or chaotic, similar to I Think I Will Cause Problems On Purpose. It has been particularly used to comment upon social media threads where one user heavily roasts another, seemingly without provocation.

Origin

On June 21st, 2019, Twitter^[6] @mtheadnothought tweeted the earliest known usage of the phrase. They wrote, "Azelia Banks wakes up every morning and chooses violence tbh the dedication is outstanding." The tweet, which is private, received more than 14,000 likes and 2,900 retweets, according to a screenshot posted in January 2021 (shown below).

Precursor

On June 12th, 2016, the Game of Thrones episode "No One" aired in the United States.^[7] In the episode, Cersei Lannister (portrayed by Lena Heady) defies the religious sect the High Sparrow. When threatened to comply, she has the following exchange:

Lancel Lannister: Order your man to step aside or there will be violence.
Cersei Lannister: I choose violence.

Spread

On July 12th, 2020, Twitter user @_dalia7^[1] popularized usage of the phrase when she tweeted, "mosquitos really wake up everyday and choose violence," gaining over 123,000 retweets and 559,000 likes (shown below).

Over the following months, the phrase saw use from people describing their pets. For example, on August 13th, 2020, Redditor anxietyinHD^[2] posted a picture of their cat, writing, "for once he woke up and didn't choose violence" (shown below, left). On November 23rd, user raccoonda^[3] posted a GIF of a cat biting an arm to /r/animalsbeingjerks with the phrase, gaining over 56,000 points (shown below, right).

Towards the fall of 2020, the phrase began being used to comment upon social media threads where a user was particularly hostile with little provocation. For example, on November 28th, Twitter user terrysocold^[4] used the phrase to describe Stephen Curry owning Nate Robinson after his boxing match with Jake Paul (shown below, left). On the 29th, user @realasysk^[5] used the phrase to describe tweets by @YourFavTweeter_ where he insulted a woman's son (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References