You Gotta

Submission 35,224

About

You Gotta is a series of mock conversations on Tumblr in which a person receives the emphatic response "you gotta" after questioning an order.

Origin

On October 16th, 2013, the Baby's Names Facebook^[2] page posted a screenshot of a Facebook comment claiming "I will never name my baby any of those names" to which the Baby's Names page replies "You Gotta" (shown below).

Spread

On February 6th, 2015, the LoveThisBug Tumblr^[1] reposted the Baby's Names Facebook screenshot, gaining over 124,000 notes in seven months. On August 18th, Tumblr user pinkpegasi^[8] submitted a post in which a brain orders itself to "feel sad for no reason" (shown below). Over the next month, the post accumulated upwards of 250,000 notes.

On August 20th, the Baby's Names Facebook^[4] posted a status update with the message "You HAVE to Name Your Baby This," to which several commenters replied with the phrase "you gotta." On September 8th, Tumblr user lovelucina^[5] posted a mock conversation in which her brain orders her to stay up for five hours (shown below). Within two weeks, the post garnered more than 39,500 notes.

On September 13th, Tumblr user featherdusters^[6] posted a mock conversation with the upcoming augmented reality game Pokémon GO (shown below, left). On September 17th, Tumblr user tiny-jester^[7] submitted a conversation in which a brain orders itself to pick up a "smooth/round rock," gaining over 200,000 notes in four days. The same day, the Meme Documentation^[3] Tumblr blog published an explanation of the "You Gotta" meme.