Y'all Need Jesus

Confirmed 84,920

About

Y'all Need Jesus is a catchphrase and reaction image used online to respond to something that is perverse, offensive, outside the norms of Christianity or foolish. Popular variations of this meme use the same template and stock character as Strong Black Woman Who Don't Need No Man.

Origin

The earliest usage of the phrase "Y'all Need Jesus" can be found in a Washington Post article entitled "Rap Gets Religion, But Is It Gospel?" from September 24th, 2004. Discussing the Kanye West song "Jesus Walks," the article misquotes West, writing out the lyrics "The way Kathie Lee needed Regis that's the way I need Jesus"^[1] as "The way Kathie Lee needed Regis / That's the way y'all need Jesus."^[2]

Spread

On January 8th, 2011, YouTuber winquotes posted a clip from the 2003 film Bad Boys 2 in which a woman tells Will Smith and Martin Lawrence "You two motherfuckers need Jesus." As of June 2017, the video (shown below) has been viewed more than 270,000 times.

The most popular uses of "Y'all Need Jesus" uses two templates referred to as "Sassy Black Woman (or Lady)" and "Angry Black Woman." The first (shown below, left) features an African American woman in a brown outfit staring directly at the camera inside a bronze border -- it can also be found without the border. This template, known has "Angry Black Woman" was created on April 19th, 2012.^[5] As of the June 2017, the most popular variation of this template has over 3,000 shares on Quickmeme.^[6]

Another variation (shown below, right), appeared on Meme Generator^[7] On December 1st, 2013. The image features an African American woman in a suit pointing directly at the camera with the caption "Y'all Mother Fuckers Need Jesus" (shown below, right). The most popular variation on Quick Meme,^[8] which uses the caption "Y'all Motherfuckers Need Sources," has more than 150,000 shares.

On February 6th, 2013, YouTuber Sylvia Soto posted a video of a still image of a "Y'all Motherfuckers Need Jesus" reaction image with someone saying "y'all mother fuckers need motherfucking Jesus." The video (shown below) has received more than 80,000 views as of June 2017.

On July 5th, 2014, Urban Dictionary user aolifie defined "Y'all need Jesus" as "when someone is so stupid they need jesus to help guide their ways."^[3]

12 days later, on July 17th, Redditor Toidal^[9] posted a picture of Pope Francis with the caption "Y'all Motherfuckers Need Jesus" in the thread "Pope Francis to bankers worldwide" in the /r/Funny subreddit. Before archiving, the image (shown below) received more than 2,400 points (87% upvoted) and 100 comments.