You Used to Find an X In Every Y

Submission 3,443

About

You Used to Find an X in Every Y is a phrasal template used in a series of social media posts that imply, often ironically, that certain celebrities known for being conventionally attractive are rather mid and that people with similar appearances can easily be found anywhere. The format gained virality on Twitter in July 2023 following a contentious tweet that called actress Margot Robbie mid.

Origin

On August 1st, 2017, Twitter^[1] user @drewclouds (formerly @BieberBoners_) tweeted two photographs of singer Justin Bieber, commenting, "he is truly the most beautiful human being wow." Later that day, Twitter user @drequentlyian replied to the tweet by saying that one could meet three people who looked like that at a nearest gas station (tweet no longer available, exchange shown below).^[2]

Screenshots of the exchange were widely circulated online in the following years. For example, on November 28th, 2017, the Facebook^[3] page UNILAD Sound posted a screenshot that received over 4,400 reactions and 250 shares in six years. A June 5th, 2021, iFunny^[4] post by ShadowELF received over 20,000 smiles in two years.

Spread

The format did not achieve virality until mid-2023 when Twitter^[5]^[6] user @bizlet7 made two similarly structured tweets in which he stated that actresses Jennifer Connelly and Margot Robbie were 6 and 7 on the 1-10 Attractiveness Scale, adding that "you used to find a Jennifer Connely in every Outback Steakhouse in 1995" and "you used to find a Margot Robbie in every Blockbuster Video in 1995." The tweets (shown below, left and right) garnered over 60 retweets and 1,600 likes and 280 retweets, 5,000 quote tweets and 5,400 likes in two months and in one week, respectively.

The second tweet spawned a meme format that involved users sharing photographs of celebrities considered conventionally attractive paired with a caption that you could easily find people like them (examples shown below).^[7]^[8]

The format maintained its popularity on Twitter throughout July 2023.