# Brother May I Have Some Oats Brother May I Have Some Oats is a copypasta caption paired with an 1850 oil painting of two pigs, originating from a 2016 Twitter post and spreading through 4chan's /s4s/ and /r9k/ boards. The bit turned a Victorian farm painting into a template for polite, formal requests between imagined pig brothers. ## Overview Brother May I Have Some Oats is a copypasta built around an 1850 oil painting called A Pair of Pigs, showing two hefty pigs standing side by side in a pen[2]. The joke pairs the antique farm scene with an exaggeratedly polite request, imagining the pigs as Victorian brothers asking each other for breakfast[1]. On 4chan, the format became known as oatposting, with users on /s4s/ and /r9k/ swapping variants like "Brother dear, would you please pas the oats?" and "May I have some oats, brother"[3]. The humor sits in the mismatch between the stately painting, the formal English, and the fact that the speakers are two pigs. ## How It Spread On October 30th, 2016, Tumblr user nanalie [3] reposted a screenshot of the original tweet, and it picked up more than 68,000 notes within two months[3]. The image jumped to 4chan on December 31st, 2016, when an anonymous poster on the /s4s/ board shared it with the caption "Brother dear, would you please pas the oats?" [2]. On January 2nd, 2017, an /r9k/ [5] user started a thread using the caption "May I have some oats, brother," which drew over 300 replies before being archived[3]. Two days later, on January 4th, 2017, YouTuber Joe Capo uploaded a video titled "Brother May Have Any Oats" [1], and a repost by the Difficulty II Facebook page reached over 191,000 views, 3,700 reactions, and 2,600 shares in under 24 hours[3]. On January 5th, 2017, Redditor quitethepersona [6] submitted a screenshot of one of the 4chan threads to r/4chan, helping the format cross into Reddit's meme circles[3]. ## How to Use The template typically pairs the A Pair of Pigs painting with a short, overly polite request written in mock-Victorian English. Common conventions include addressing the other pig as "brother" or "brother dear," and asking for oats, though users often swap in other requests or reframe the pigs as characters in longer copypasta exchanges[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Brother May I Have Some Oats? It's a copypasta caption attached to an 1850 painting of two pigs, popularized on 4chan as oatposting[3]. ### Where did Brother May I Have Some Oats come from? Twitter user @markyannna posted the pig painting with the caption on October 10th, 2016, and it spread from there[3]. ### What does Brother May I Have Some Oats mean? The joke reframes the two pigs in A Pair of Pigs as brothers politely asking each other for breakfast, playing on the mismatch between the antique painting and the formal request[2]. ### How do you use Brother May I Have Some Oats? People pair the pig painting with a short polite request in mock-Victorian English, often addressed to "brother" and asking for oats[3]. ### Is Brother May I Have Some Oats still popular? It's a classic 4chan copypasta from late 2016 and early 2017, best known for its run on /s4s/ and /r9k/ during that period[3]. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASDoiX45jMk]() 2. [https://www.comptonverney.org.uk/cv_collections/a-pair-of-pigs/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/brother-may-i-have-some-oats]() 4. [https://twitter.com/markyannna]() 5. [https://archive.is/]() 6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/4chan/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/brother-may-i-have-some-oats Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library