# Bait This Is Bait "Bait This Is Bait" is a 4chan image macro from May 2013 showing a royalty-free clip art fish chasing a bare hook, captioned "THIS IS BAIT." Posters use it to publicly flag comments written to provoke a flame war, calling out anyone dumb enough to take the bait. ## Origin The concept of flamebait long predates the fish. One of the earliest documented uses appeared in an August 20th, 1995 thread on the rec.autos.tech Usenet newsgroup, where a poster ranted that soft American car suspensions and automatic transmissions made Americans look weak, and another user tagged the post as "flamebait" for trying to start an argument[3]. The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing formally added "flame bait" on May 27th, 1998, defining it as a Usenet post meant to elicit hostility or invite flames in reply[1]. The image macro version first showed up on 4chan around May 2013[3]. One of the earliest archived posts is on the /a/ board (Anime and Manga), where someone dropped the fish-and-hook picture as a reply to a user attacking Kirino Kousaka from the light novel series Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai[3]. - **Platform:** 4chan - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2013 ## Overview "This Is Bait" is an image macro built on a plain piece of royalty-free vector clip art showing a fish swimming toward a bare fishing hook, with the words "THIS IS BAIT" stamped across it in bold caps[2]. It works as a low-effort reply on 4chan and other imageboards, dropped under a comment that looks obviously written to start a fight so that other readers know not to argue with it. The macro is one visual branch of a much older idea called flamebait, a Usenet-era label for posts intended to trigger hostility[1]. The fish drawing came from a free vector library and got no artistic credit, which is part of why users felt free to trace, recolor, and edit it into hundreds of variants[2][3]. It sits in the same family of 4chan bait culture as the rhyming shorthand "gr8 b8 m8," which took off in the same window and often gets typed as a verbal companion to the image[3]. ## How It Spread From /a/, the picture jumped to other 4chan boards including /vg/ (Video Game Generals), /tg/ (Traditional Games), and /s4s/ (Shit 4chan Says), each of which started producing photoshopped variants that swapped the fish, the hook, or both for characters and jokes specific to that board[3]. Copies later showed up on DeviantArt as user art edits and on Ponychan, where the format traveled into the My Little Pony fandom[3]. The shorthand "gr8 b8 m8" ("great bait, mate") spread on 4chan in the same May 2013 window as a text-only way to compliment or mock a baiting post, and it is often paired with the image in the same reply[3]. The underlying vocabulary had been mainstream on the wider internet for years by then: Urban Dictionary logged an entry for flamebait on March 24th, 2004, and the software-culture site Wiki Wiki Web added its own "Flame Bait" page in February 2006[3]. What 2013 added was the visual shorthand, which turned a long argument about someone's motives into a single reply anyone could post. ## How to Use The convention is straightforward. When a post looks so provocative that it reads as engineered to farm angry replies, you post the fish-and-hook "THIS IS BAIT" image underneath it. The idea is to warn other readers off engaging and to embarrass anyone in the thread who already took the bait seriously. Edits typically swap the fish or hook for a character, logo, or in-joke tied to the board or fandom where the reply is being posted, and the phrase "gr8 b8 m8" is often typed alongside it[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Bait This Is Bait? It is a 4chan image macro of a royalty-free clip art fish chasing a bare hook with the caption "THIS IS BAIT," posted as a reply to call out comments written to provoke a flame war[2][3]. ### Where did Bait This Is Bait come from? The image macro first circulated on 4chan around May 2013, with one of the earliest archived uses on the /a/ (Anime and Manga) board in reply to a post attacking the character Kirino Kousaka[3]. ### What does Bait This Is Bait mean? It means the post above it is flamebait, an old Usenet term for a message intended to trigger hostility or start an argument rather than share a genuine opinion[1]. ### How do you use Bait This Is Bait? Reply to an obviously provocative post with the fish-and-hook image, often with the shorthand "gr8 b8 m8," to flag the post as bait and mock anyone taking it seriously[3]. ### Is Bait This Is Bait still popular? It is a classic piece of 4chan bait culture that spread from /a/ to boards like /vg/, /tg/, and /s4s/, plus DeviantArt and Ponychan, and its edits have circulated in imageboard replies ever since[3]. ## References 1. [https://foldoc.org/flame+bait]() 2. [https://all-free-download.com/free-vector/vector-clip-art/fishing_clip_art_15826.html]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bait-this-is-bait]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/bait-this-is-bait Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library