Blue Eyes Slander

2018catchphrasesemi-active

Published August 1, 2026

Blue Eyes Slander is a running series of X and TikTok jokes mocking people with light-blue eyes for supposedly angling their selfies to show them off. The format built up between 2018 and 2023 around a piercing 2008 photo of Miley Cyrus and catchphrases like 'we see them damn' and 'buy her brown contacts PLEASE.'

body image memescatchphrase memessarcasm memesselfie memesbehavior mocking memes

Overview

Blue Eyes Slander is an ongoing joke format on X and TikTok where users mock people with light-blue eyes for the supposedly attention-hungry way they show them off in selfies and videos7. The bit leans on the stereotype that blue-eyed people angle photos so the color catches the light, or caption posts in ways that pull the reader's eye straight to their irises1.

Recurring pieces of the format include a piercing 2008 photo of Miley Cyrus, a crude MS Paint cartoon with folded hands drawn by @Pubby_Kat, and catchphrases like 'Okay girl we see them damn'2. The tone is teasing rather than hostile, and the target is almost always someone the poster thinks is a little too pleased with their own eye color4.

Origin & Background

Platform
X (viral spread) / TikTok
Date
2018

The genre traces back to a photo of Miley Cyrus taken at the 2008 Grammy Awards on February 10, 2008, in which she stares into the camera with a startlingly light-blue gaze7. On October 18, 2018, X user @brianlunn reposted the shot with a caption mocking blue-eyed people, pulling in around 38,000 retweets and 161,000 likes before the account was suspended1.

A parallel strain of the joke came from X user @Pubby_Kat, whose simplistic MS Paint drawing of a blue-eyed cartoon with folded hands racked up over 6,100 retweets and 59,900 likes before being deleted2.

How It Spread

The catchphrase side of Blue Eyes Slander started building around 2020. On April 8, 2020, iFunny user @sad_payable_tygenki_2020 shared a screenshot of a now-deleted X post using the phrasing 'Okay damn, we see them,' which turned into shorthand for calling out light-eyed posters6. The wording stuck. On March 22, 2023, X user @islandthembo posted 'Damn we see them' and collected more than 12,000 likes within four months4.

Visual entries kept appearing alongside the catchphrases. On November 12, 2022, X user @Yokiter posted their own illustration riffing on blue-eyed people, pulling over 3,000 likes in a year3. In April 2023, a screenshot from a TikTok of a brown long-haired dachshund with uncommonly blue eyes attracted the comment 'I'm literally shaking buy her brown contacts pls,' which Tumblr user @heartheater then reshared, locking in 'buy her brown contacts' as another go-to punchline5.

How to Use This Meme

People typically use Blue Eyes Slander by quote-tweeting or replying to a selfie, pet photo, or video where the subject's blue eyes are the focal point, then adding a line like 'okay girl we see them damn' or 'buy her brown contacts PLEASE'6. Static image versions often pair the Miley Cyrus photo or the @Pubby_Kat MS Paint cartoon with a caption calling out the perceived attention-seeking1.

Frequently Asked Questions