World Ends, Women Most Affected

Submission 1,350

About

"World Ends Tomorrow: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit" refers to a joke headline that parodies liberal mass media's perceived focus on how a general problem affects groups that are perceived as vulnerable, such as women and minorities. First made by comedian Mort Sahl in the 1980s, in the 2020s the joke, altered to simply read "Women Most Affected," has been used to poke fun at articles that raise the issues of men struggling but choosing to focus on the negative impact it has on women.

Origin

The joke headline "World Ends: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit" is commonly ascribed to comedian Mort Sahl, who told it as early as 1988.^[1] The conservative joke parodies a headline that could appear in liberal newspapers before the end of the world. Multiple versions of the joke exist, with one popular version being "World Ends: Poor and Minorities Hardest Hit." In the 1990s, the joke was also told by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.

Prior to 2019, the joke appeared in various articles and blog posts online. For example, on August 31st, 2005, National Review^[2] used the joke to describe a recent headline by ABC News (shown below).

On May 5th, 2019, YouTuber Shoe0nHead posted a snippet of an article that appeared in Harper's BAZAAR titled "Men Have No Friends and Women Bear the Burden," commenting with a version of the joke. The post (shown below) received over 590 reposts and 5,200 likes on X^[3] in four years.

Spread

On September 7th, 2019, X^[4]^[5] users @RationalMale and @shoe0nhead both posted a snippet of a New York Post article titled "Broke men are hurting American women’s marriage prospects" with the joke. The posts (shown below, left and right) received over 100 reposts and 420 likes and 220 reposts and 2,400 likes, respectively, in five years. The posts received further spread through reposts on Reddit^[6] and other sites.^[7]

In the following years, the joke "women most affected" saw extensive use online, being used to comment on headlines that shifted focus from issues affecting males to how they affect women. For example, on October 2nd, 2023, Redditor PitytheOnlyFools made a post in the /r/Destiny^[8] subreddit that gained over 670 likes in 10 months (shown below, left).

On January 7th, 2024, X^[9] user @_rawrell quoted a headline "We Can't Compete With AI Girlfriends" with the joke. The post received over 960 reposts and 9,700 likes in five months (shown below, right).