X Games Mode

About

X Games Mode is a viral video where a skateboarder wallrides, followed by the videographer exclaiming, "Oh my god he on X Games mode." The video was uploaded to Vine in 2015 and the phrase "on X Games mode" became a common slang term over the following years, used both authentically and ironically as a compliment after someone does something skillful or extreme.

Origin

On August 31st, 2015, Vine^[1] user @she_skin posted a video where a street skateboarder wallrides. The videographer exclaims, "Oh my god. Oh my god he on X Games mode." The video gained over 329,000 likes and 19.2 million loops before the platform's closure in 2017. It was reuploaded to YouTube^[2] that year on September 29th, gaining over 5.8 million views in seven years (shown below).

Spread

The phrase "on X Games mode" became popularized online as a slang term over the following years, used in memes and viral videos as a caption where someone does something skillful or ironically skillful. For example, on June 3, 2016, Twitter^[10] user @mollyrepassta posted images of Bernie Sanders playing basketball captioned, "bernie on full x games mode" (shown below). On November 27th, 2017, Twitter^[3] user @naomijanae posted, "My sex drive on x games mode," gaining over 2,100 likes in five years. The term reached a peak in popularity in 2020, accelerated as the sound became popularized on TikTok.

TikTok Usage

Around April 2020, TikToker^[4] @grubbyest posted a now-deleted video containing the audio from the viral video. The original sound became popularized over the course of the year in lip-dub videos, inspiring over 84,000 videos in two years. On April 30th, 2020, musician Tyga posted a skit to TikTok^[5] using the sound in a joke about going to the gym for the first time, gaining over 13.9 million views in two years (shown below).

On May 27th, the NFL TikTok^[6] page posted a football highlight using the sound, gaining over 9.6 million views in two years (shown below, left). On June 30th, musician Jason Derulo posted a video to TIkTok^[7] where he catches a bottle in mid-air after bouncing it off a basketball using the sound, gaining over 8 million views in a similar span of time (shown below, right).

Continued Spread

On June 10th, 2020, Barstool Sports used the caption on a Facebook^[8] video of a tubing fail, writing, "Dad went full X Games mode driving the speed boat," gaining over 27,000 reactions and 6.5 million views in two years. On August 3rd, Instagram^[9] user funnymemes posted a video of a man doing gymnastics captioned "My dude went full X-games mode," gaining over 152,000 views in two years (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References