Bro Fist

2008copypastaclassic

Bro Fist is internet slang for the fist bump greeting, best known online as an ASCII copypasta of a clenched fist that spread through 4chan, DeviantArt, and FunnyJunk starting in October 2008. YouTuber PewDiePie later brought the gesture to a wider audience through videos featuring bro fist sign-offs and street fist bumps.

gesture memesascii art memescopypasta memespewdiepie memeslate 2000s memes

Overview

Bro Fist is internet slang for the fist bump greeting, where two friends tap closed fists together to say hello or celebrate a moment4. Online, the term is tied to a specific ASCII copypasta drawn to look like a clenched fist, made from slashes, dots, and parentheses, which spread on forums and message boards as a reply people pasted to greet each other4. The art is often accompanied by a chain-letter style dare like 'bro fist if you don't post this to five other bros you're not a bro'4.

Off the internet, the fist bump has a longer history that the meme borrows from. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has floated St. Louis Cardinals player Stan Musial, who played in Major League Baseball from 1941 to 1963, as a possible inventor of the informal version of the greeting1.

How It Spread

The image macro version arrived on FunnyJunk in December 2009 as a fist drawing captioned 'place fist here, bro.' A photograph of a baby making a fist bump appeared on the same site in October 2010, and on June 20, 2011, Redditor Madizmal posted an image of two horses touching hooves to /r/pics under the title 'Brofist'3.

By mid-2011 the joke also jumped to video. YouTuber Schnitzel Teller uploaded a Team Fortress 2 animation of two characters bumping fists on May 29, 2011, titled 'Brofist'2. In February 2012, YouTuber tosermate uploaded 'Epic Brofist,' a clip of a man punching a hole through his monitor while trying to bump fists with PewDiePie on screen.

YouTuber PewDiePie brought the gesture to millions of viewers. On April 27, 2012, he uploaded a video attempting to fist bump strangers on the street, drawing over 2.41 million views in the year and a half that followed2.

How to Use This Meme

The ASCII copypasta is typically pasted as a standalone reply on a forum or dropped at the end of a supportive comment, treating the reader as a 'bro' being greeted. In photo and video form, people often stage a fist bump toward the camera or another subject, with the caption 'brofist' or 'bro fist' doing most of the joke work4.

Frequently Asked Questions

Bro Fist

2008copypastaclassic

Bro Fist is internet slang for the fist bump greeting, best known online as an ASCII copypasta of a clenched fist that spread through 4chan, DeviantArt, and FunnyJunk starting in October 2008. YouTuber PewDiePie later brought the gesture to a wider audience through videos featuring bro fist sign-offs and street fist bumps.

gesture memes ascii art memes copypasta memes pewdiepie memes late 2000s memes

Overview

Bro Fist is internet slang for the fist bump greeting, where two friends tap closed fists together to say hello or celebrate a moment4. Online, the term is tied to a specific ASCII copypasta drawn to look like a clenched fist, made from slashes, dots, and parentheses, which spread on forums and message boards as a reply people pasted to greet each other4. The art is often accompanied by a chain-letter style dare like 'bro fist if you don't post this to five other bros you're not a bro'4.

Off the internet, the fist bump has a longer history that the meme borrows from. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has floated St. Louis Cardinals player Stan Musial, who played in Major League Baseball from 1941 to 1963, as a possible inventor of the informal version of the greeting1.

How It Spread

The image macro version arrived on FunnyJunk in December 2009 as a fist drawing captioned 'place fist here, bro.' A photograph of a baby making a fist bump appeared on the same site in October 2010, and on June 20, 2011, Redditor Madizmal posted an image of two horses touching hooves to /r/pics under the title 'Brofist'3.

By mid-2011 the joke also jumped to video. YouTuber Schnitzel Teller uploaded a Team Fortress 2 animation of two characters bumping fists on May 29, 2011, titled 'Brofist'2. In February 2012, YouTuber tosermate uploaded 'Epic Brofist,' a clip of a man punching a hole through his monitor while trying to bump fists with PewDiePie on screen.

YouTuber PewDiePie brought the gesture to millions of viewers. On April 27, 2012, he uploaded a video attempting to fist bump strangers on the street, drawing over 2.41 million views in the year and a half that followed2.

How to Use This Meme

The ASCII copypasta is typically pasted as a standalone reply on a forum or dropped at the end of a supportive comment, treating the reader as a 'bro' being greeted. In photo and video form, people often stage a fist bump toward the camera or another subject, with the caption 'brofist' or 'bro fist' doing most of the joke work4.

Frequently Asked Questions