We Have Food at Home

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About

We Have Food at Home is a series of jokes and mock conversations about the commonly shared experience of asking one's parents for take out and being told "there's food at home." In April 2019, humorous images highlighting low desirability of food at home gained popularity online, later expanding into a larger things I don't like trope. In January 2020, comic version We Have Girlfriend at Home gained popularity.

Origin

While jokes involving this phrase have likely existed prior to their online appearance, the earliest available variation of the joke was posted on April 8th, 2009 by Twitter ^[1] @Guesswhocruz. They wrote, "back in the day flashback: saying i want Mcdonald's and my mom use to say WE GOT FOOD AT HOME" (shown below).

Spread

Over the next decade, jokes involving the phrase grew in popularity on Twitter. For example, on February 3rd, 2012, Twitter^[2] user @mariavargasxoxo tweeted, "Yeah mom there's totally a lot of food at home" (shown below).

On January 10th, 2014, Twitter^[3] account @ghetttovine tweeted an image of Tyler, the Creator with the caption "When your Mom passes McDonalds and says 'There's food at home.'" Within five years, the tweet received more than 1,000 retweets and 500 likes (shown below, center).

Three years later, on February 6th, 2017, Instagram ^[4] user @rellstilldarealest posted a Gavin with the caption "When you want mcdonalds but ya mom says there's food at home." The post received more than 1,000 likes in two years (shown below, right).

On April 1st, 2019, Instagram^[5] user @wilfordbrimly posted an image of a banana in a bowl of marinara sauce with the caption "Can we stop and get some food? Mom: we have food at home." The post received more than 3,200 likes in one week (shown below).

On April 2nd, 2019, Redditor mnaimm posted a similarly captioned image created by an unknown author to /r/me_irl subreddit, where the post gained over 12,500 upvotes in two weeks.^[6]

In the following weeks, multiple posts following the trope were posted on Reddit, primarily in /r/dankmemes subreddit.

Non-Food Versions

On April 16th, 2019, Redditor Larssmaller posted the first known non-food version of the joke disparaging battle royale game Fortnite. ^[7] The post gained over 52,300 upvotes in two days.

In the following days, multiple notable posts carried out in a similar manner were posted online. For example, a post referencing the 2019 Notre Dame fire, posted by Redditor NexusVolt on the same day, gained over 7,100 upvotes in 24 hours.^[8]

We Have Girlfriend at Home

On January 7th, 2020, Twitter^[9] artist @PrincessHinghoi posted a comic in which a mother refuses to let her son to get a girlfriend, claiming that they "have one at home." In the second panel, it is revealed that by "girlfriend" the mother meant herself. The comic received over 1,600 retweets and 9,400 likes in one week (shown below).

On the same day, the image was posted to /r/AraAra^[10] subreddit, where it received over 3,700 upvotes in one week. Reposts to /r/NoahGetTheBoat^[11] and /r/ShotaCops^[12] received over 5,100 upvotes and 780 upvotes in the same period, while the same-day 9GAG^[13] post received over 1,400 points.

Edits

On January 9th, 2020, Redditor Galaron_Shuri posted the earliest known edit of the comic referencing Milf Hunter Kakoyin meme (shown below, left). The post received over 4,600 upvotes in /r/ShitPostCrusaders in one week. Starting on January 9th, the comic gained moderate popularity in memes, with notable posts made by Redditors TryToEpic and MalcomLuvsPews (shown below, left and right). On January 15th, Redditor MalcomLuvsPewds posted a template for the format to /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial subreddit.