When Guys Turn 20

About

When Guys Turn 20 refers to a series of posts which joke that when people, mostly men, turn twenty years old, they pick a certain brand to base their entire personality around. The post is accompanied by a 3×3 grid of examples of the particular brand. While the joke started using albums, over time, it evolved to include fashion and media brands, as well as parody posts showcasing humorous items.

Origin

On March 18th, Facebook^[6] user Paul Wildhoney made a post reading "When guys turn 20 they choose one of these albums to base their entire personality around," including albums such as Radiohead's OK Computer, Death Grips' Ex-military, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless and others. The post received over 940 reactions and 3,000 shares in six months.

Spread

On March 20th, Twitter meme page Eternal Classic^[2] reposted the meme, with the tweet gaining over 60 retweets and 350 likes (shown below).

Over the following weeks, the joke continued to spread using music albums. On March 23rd, 2020, Instagram user musicmemeposting^[1] posted a joke saying, "When girls turn 20, they choose one of these albums to base their entire personality around" along with a 3×3 grid showcasing albums including Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster, The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead, Lana Del Rey's Born to Die, Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and others. The post gained over 9,500 likes (shown below, left). On April 11th, user @piercespears^[3] posted an example focusing on gay men, showcasing albums from Fiona Apple, Mariah Carey, Joanna Newsom and others, gaining over 180 retweets and 760 likes (shown below, right).

By summer and fall of 2020, the meme developed to include brands and posts parodying the meme. On September 10th, 2020, the podcast Throwing Fits^[4] tweeted an example which showed various brands, such as Discord, the NRA, Barstool Sports, and others, gaining over 340 retweets and 2,200 likes. On September 6th, user @newsimpcerity^[5] posted a parody example showing various books from the Chicken Soup For The Soul series (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References