A Secret Third Thing

2022catchphraseclassic

A Secret Third Thing is a catchphrase and phrasal template that took off on Twitter in the summer of 2022, built around the format "I am neither X nor Y but a secret third thing." It started as a doctored dog image macro and grew into a widely used absurdist joke structure, with a longer variant reading "a secret, more complex third thing."

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Overview

A Secret Third Thing is a phrasal template in which the speaker rejects two obvious options and claims a mysterious, unnamed alternative. The core format reads "I am neither X nor Y but a secret third thing," and a longer riff, "a secret, more complex third thing," runs alongside it3.

The joke works by refusing to complete the setup. Users pair opposing states or identities in the X and Y slots (joking and serious, hungry and full, girl and woman) and leave the punchline as a comedic void2. Its short-form structure fit Twitter's surreal humor style of 2022, where the absurdist reveal did the heavy lifting.

How It Spread

Over the next few months, Twitter users kept the sentence structure and swapped in new adjective pairs. On August 2, 2022, @sillymonkey tweeted "im not horny or scared anymore but a secret third thing," collecting over 2,700 retweets and 19,000 likes inside a month2. Two weeks later, on August 16, @rundizzy posted "not hungry or full but a secret third thing," a smaller but still visible hit6.

Starting August 28, 2022, Twitter user @daughter_ion began writing jokes that used "secret, more complex third thing" as the punchline, including a pickup-line tweet about a couple looking for one at a bar4. The longer phrasing caught on fast. On August 31, @nicolerichle flipped the Britney Spears lyric with "i'm not a girl, not yet a woman but a secret more complex third thing," earning over 30 retweets and 300 likes in a day5.

How to Use This Meme

The template typically opens by naming two opposites or expected states, then breaks the pattern with the "secret third thing" reveal. A common convention is to pair feelings (hungry and full, joking and serious), identities (girl and woman), or moods (horny and scared). The longer "secret, more complex third thing" version often gets used when the setup is a quote, lyric, or dating-app style line.

Frequently Asked Questions

A Secret Third Thing

2022catchphraseclassic

A Secret Third Thing is a catchphrase and phrasal template that took off on Twitter in the summer of 2022, built around the format "I am neither X nor Y but a secret third thing." It started as a doctored dog image macro and grew into a widely used absurdist joke structure, with a longer variant reading "a secret, more complex third thing."

snowclone memes catchphrase memes absurdist humor memes twitter memes 2022 memes

Overview

A Secret Third Thing is a phrasal template in which the speaker rejects two obvious options and claims a mysterious, unnamed alternative. The core format reads "I am neither X nor Y but a secret third thing," and a longer riff, "a secret, more complex third thing," runs alongside it3.

The joke works by refusing to complete the setup. Users pair opposing states or identities in the X and Y slots (joking and serious, hungry and full, girl and woman) and leave the punchline as a comedic void2. Its short-form structure fit Twitter's surreal humor style of 2022, where the absurdist reveal did the heavy lifting.

How It Spread

Over the next few months, Twitter users kept the sentence structure and swapped in new adjective pairs. On August 2, 2022, @sillymonkey tweeted "im not horny or scared anymore but a secret third thing," collecting over 2,700 retweets and 19,000 likes inside a month2. Two weeks later, on August 16, @rundizzy posted "not hungry or full but a secret third thing," a smaller but still visible hit6.

Starting August 28, 2022, Twitter user @daughter_ion began writing jokes that used "secret, more complex third thing" as the punchline, including a pickup-line tweet about a couple looking for one at a bar4. The longer phrasing caught on fast. On August 31, @nicolerichle flipped the Britney Spears lyric with "i'm not a girl, not yet a woman but a secret more complex third thing," earning over 30 retweets and 300 likes in a day5.

How to Use This Meme

The template typically opens by naming two opposites or expected states, then breaks the pattern with the "secret third thing" reveal. A common convention is to pair feelings (hungry and full, joking and serious), identities (girl and woman), or moods (horny and scared). The longer "secret, more complex third thing" version often gets used when the setup is a quote, lyric, or dating-app style line.

Frequently Asked Questions