Circle Jerk

2003catchphraseclassic

Published August 9, 2026

"Circle Jerk" is internet slang for a self-reinforcing feedback loop in which a community keeps upvoting its own inside jokes, catchphrases, and beliefs until every thread turns into an echo of itself. The label jumped from offline slang into online discourse through Urban Dictionary in 2003 and became a Reddit institution after /r/circlejerk launched in December 2008.

slang memesinternet slang origin memesreddit memesurban dictionary memesinternet meta memes

Overview

The "Circle Jerk" label pins down the pattern where a tight-knit online community keeps rewarding the same set of takes with upvotes and repetition until newcomers cannot post without repeating the script3. Urban Dictionary's top entries frame it as blowhards who "end up agreeing with each other's viewpoints to the point of redundancy, stroking each other's egos," a deliberate parallel to the sexual origin of the phrase2. On Reddit and 4chan the accusation stuck, thrown at any subreddit whose front page had flattened into predictable karma-bait4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Urban Dictionary / Reddit (viral spread)
Date
2003

The term started as offline slang. In 1979 the Los Angeles punk band Bedwetters renamed themselves the Circle Jerks after a member found the phrase in an English dictionary, and it stayed largely offline through 1980s and 1990s Usenet3. An Urban Dictionary entry filed in May 2003 by user "anti-racist" established the online double meaning, defining "circlejerk" as both a group sex act and an echo-chamber discussion where participants agree "to the point of redundancy"2. On July 16th, 2005, commenter Phil Aldridge on the Constructive Curmudgeon blog called the film What the Bleep Do We Know? a "new age circlejerk," one of the earliest recorded uses of the metaphor as online media criticism1.

How It Spread

By late 2005 the label had escaped the sexual meaning. On October 10th, Straight Dope member Zebra opened a thread asking others to define "circle jerk," and replies described time-wasting office meetings and self-congratulating debates instead of the original definition3. Encyclopedia Dramatica put the online sense in wiki form on January 3rd, 2006, with an entry titled "The LiveJournal Circle Jerk" that mocked an "elitist group of inept trolls" for "fellating one another's egos."

Reddit is where the phrase settled. The /r/circlejerk subreddit launched on December 10th, 2008, dedicated to parodying stock front-page tropes like blanket Ron Paul praise and copy-paste phrases such as "so brave" and "literally Hitler"4. Copycat subs multiplied fast. On January 1st, 2013, Redditor Khiva posted an "Anatomy of a circlejerk" breakdown to /r/circlebroke that documented recurring quirks of the site's hivemind5. Later communities like r/Gamingcirclejerk and r/moviescirclejerk built entire audiences around parodying mainstream fan opinions4.

How to Use This Meme

Calling a thread or subreddit a "circle jerk" is a shorthand accusation that participants are repeating the same popular takes for upvotes rather than contributing anything new2. Users typically drop the label in reply to a chain of near-identical comments, or attach it as a subreddit suffix ("Xcirclejerk") to signal that the sub exists to satirize its parent community's tropes4.

Frequently Asked Questions

Circle Jerk

2003catchphraseclassic

Published August 9, 2026

"Circle Jerk" is internet slang for a self-reinforcing feedback loop in which a community keeps upvoting its own inside jokes, catchphrases, and beliefs until every thread turns into an echo of itself. The label jumped from offline slang into online discourse through Urban Dictionary in 2003 and became a Reddit institution after /r/circlejerk launched in December 2008.

slang memes internet slang origin memes reddit memes urban dictionary memes internet meta memes

Overview

The "Circle Jerk" label pins down the pattern where a tight-knit online community keeps rewarding the same set of takes with upvotes and repetition until newcomers cannot post without repeating the script3. Urban Dictionary's top entries frame it as blowhards who "end up agreeing with each other's viewpoints to the point of redundancy, stroking each other's egos," a deliberate parallel to the sexual origin of the phrase2. On Reddit and 4chan the accusation stuck, thrown at any subreddit whose front page had flattened into predictable karma-bait4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Urban Dictionary / Reddit (viral spread)
Date
2003

The term started as offline slang. In 1979 the Los Angeles punk band Bedwetters renamed themselves the Circle Jerks after a member found the phrase in an English dictionary, and it stayed largely offline through 1980s and 1990s Usenet3. An Urban Dictionary entry filed in May 2003 by user "anti-racist" established the online double meaning, defining "circlejerk" as both a group sex act and an echo-chamber discussion where participants agree "to the point of redundancy"2. On July 16th, 2005, commenter Phil Aldridge on the Constructive Curmudgeon blog called the film What the Bleep Do We Know? a "new age circlejerk," one of the earliest recorded uses of the metaphor as online media criticism1.

How It Spread

By late 2005 the label had escaped the sexual meaning. On October 10th, Straight Dope member Zebra opened a thread asking others to define "circle jerk," and replies described time-wasting office meetings and self-congratulating debates instead of the original definition3. Encyclopedia Dramatica put the online sense in wiki form on January 3rd, 2006, with an entry titled "The LiveJournal Circle Jerk" that mocked an "elitist group of inept trolls" for "fellating one another's egos."

Reddit is where the phrase settled. The /r/circlejerk subreddit launched on December 10th, 2008, dedicated to parodying stock front-page tropes like blanket Ron Paul praise and copy-paste phrases such as "so brave" and "literally Hitler"4. Copycat subs multiplied fast. On January 1st, 2013, Redditor Khiva posted an "Anatomy of a circlejerk" breakdown to /r/circlebroke that documented recurring quirks of the site's hivemind5. Later communities like r/Gamingcirclejerk and r/moviescirclejerk built entire audiences around parodying mainstream fan opinions4.

How to Use This Meme

Calling a thread or subreddit a "circle jerk" is a shorthand accusation that participants are repeating the same popular takes for upvotes rather than contributing anything new2. Users typically drop the label in reply to a chain of near-identical comments, or attach it as a subreddit suffix ("Xcirclejerk") to signal that the sub exists to satirize its parent community's tropes4.

Frequently Asked Questions