Why Mafia Isn't an Aesthetic / I Cooka Da Pizza

About

I Cooka Da Pizza is a catchphrase used to ridicule Italian accent, culture and Italians in general. The catchphrase was popularized by a reply to a 2021 Twitter thread arguing Why Mafia Isn't a Fucking Aesthetic, with screenshots of the exchange going viral and inspiring memes in the following years.

Origin

Prior to its popularization in 2021, the phrase "I cooka da pizza" has occasionally been used to mock Italians and Italian accents. For example, on September 14th, 2020, Twitter^[1] user @track11sea posted a Trans People: I'm Trans meme using the phrase that gained over 1,200 retweets and 7,900 likes in two years (shown below).

On April 11th, 2021, Twitter user @occultkyoong tweeted, "why mafia isn't a fucking aesthetic: a thread," to which Twitter user @seigfridge replied, "i cooka da pizza," undermining the message, with @occultkyoong swearing at them in response (shown below).

On April 12th, 2021, Twitter^[2] user @girlfrog tweeted screenshots of the thread, with the post gaining over 46,300 retweets and 415,900 likes in two years. On April 13th, Redditor tongue_depression posted the screenshot in the /r/196^[3] subreddit, where it gained over 16,400 upvotes in two years.

Spread

The viral spread of the screenshots helped popularize the phrase on social media. For example, on June 21st, 2021, Twitter^[4] user @JUNIPER posted a tweet that gained over 290 retweets and 6,600 likes in two years (shown below, left). On June 28th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user @_kiroranke posted a Yakuza version of the meme which accumulated over 800 retweets and 3,600 likes in eight months (shown below, right).

The parody exchange format peaked in popularity on Twitter in January 2023, when threads parodying the exchange by adopting it to various fandoms gained interest as a subformat of the Tweet Like X Were Real trend. On January 4th, 2023, Twitter^[6] user @Treblebaps tweeted, "Why team rocket isn't a fucking aesthetic: a thread," gaining over 7,100 retweets and 80,900 likes in one month. On January 4th, Twitter^[7] user @Madam_Riddles replied, "I steala da Pokémon," with the reply gaining over 800 retweets and 24,100 likes in the same period (exchange shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References