Y'all Got Any Fun / We Got Soul

Submission 20,267

Part of a series on Can a Robot Write a Symphony?. [View Related Entries]

About

Y'all Got Any Fun / We Got Soul (alternatively We Got Abysmal Dogshit) refers to a reaction image and a recaption meme format based on the Can a Robot Write a Symphony? scene from the 2004 film I, Robot. Often used in memes about video games, the format achieved popularity on X / Twitter in May 2024.

Origin

On July 16th, 2004, the science fiction film I, Robot was released in the United States.^[1] In the film, homicide detective Del Spooner, portrayed by Will Smith, questions a robot regarding the murder of its owner (scene shown below).

In 2017, the scene achieved popularity online in the form of the three-panel Can a Robot Write a Symphony? format, with multiple versions of the meme posted online in the late 2010s.

On April 15th, 2024, X^[2] user @SlimeBarfo recaptioned an existing meme based on the template in order to describe an unwillingness to cook food despite having the ingredients. The image (shown below, left) gained over 2,000 reposts and 26,000 likes in two months, achieving further spread through reposts.^[3] On May 14th, 2024, X^[4] user @SciAdvSeries posted a version of the image recaptioned, "y'all got any fun / "we got soul." The post received over 280 reposts and 1,000 likes in two weeks (shown below, right).

Spread

In the following days, the image saw moderate spread on X / Twitter as users captioned it with names of various games, implying that they weren't necessarily fun but had soul (examples^[5]^[6] shown below).

On May 17th, 2024, X^[7] user @Ceyarma recaptioned the robot Sonny's response to "we got abysmal dogshit," with the post gaining over 2,400 reposts and 7,800 likes and the image being used in a similar fashion to lambast various games, often in a self-disparaging manner by the fans of these games (examples^[8]^[9] shown below).

More recaptioned versions of the meme followed in late May 2024.