# Circle Jerk "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. ## 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 script[3]. 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 phrase[2]. On Reddit and 4chan the accusation stuck, thrown at any subreddit whose front page had flattened into predictable karma-bait[4]. ## 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 definition[3]. 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 hivemind[5]. Later communities like r/Gamingcirclejerk and r/moviescirclejerk built entire audiences around parodying mainstream fan opinions[4]. ## How to Use 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 new[2]. 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 tropes[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Circle Jerk? "Circle Jerk" is internet slang for a self-reinforcing group where users repeatedly reward the same inside jokes, catchphrases, and beliefs until the community turns into an echo chamber[3]. ### Where did Circle Jerk come from? It started as offline English slang, moved online through a May 2003 Urban Dictionary entry by user "anti-racist," and became a Reddit fixture after /r/circlejerk launched in December 2008[4]. ### What does Circle Jerk mean? Online, it describes an echo-chamber discussion where participants agree with each other to the point of redundancy and stroke each other's egos instead of actually debating[2]. ### How do you use Circle Jerk? Users drop the label on any subreddit or thread that has collapsed into predictable karma-bait, and communities often adopt it as a suffix like /r/Gamingcirclejerk to signal a satire sub[4]. ### Is Circle Jerk still popular? The label stayed a Reddit staple through the 2010s, with parody subs like /r/Gamingcirclejerk and /r/moviescirclejerk drawing large audiences by mocking mainstream fan opinion[4]. ## References 1. [https://theconstructivecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2005/07/review-of-what-bleep-do-we-know.html]() 2. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Circle%20Jerk]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/circle-jerk]() 4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/circlejerk/]() 5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/circle-jerk Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library