# Haters Gonna Hate Haters Gonna Hate is a catchphrase used to shrug off criticism, borrowed from early 2000s hip hop and turned into a full-blown image macro series after artist Omar Noory drew a strutting kid GIF in November 2008[3]. By 2011 it had spawned thousands of remixes of celebrities, animals, and cartoon characters walking away from imaginary insults, becoming one of the defining reaction formats of the early Reddit era[4]. ## Origin The phrase itself first showed up in the 2000 pop single 'Playas Gon' Play' by 3LW, with the line 'haters gonna hate' tucked into the chorus alongside the title hook[2]. Rap culture had been using 'haters' as slang for years by then, with Ice-T's 1999 track 'Don't Hate the Playa' helping push the term into wider circulation[2]. The visual meme came almost a decade later. Artist Omar Noory told Know Your Meme he drew the original strutting kid GIF in November 2008, saved it as 'baller.gif' for a project he called 'Top Secret,' and uploaded it to his portfolio in 2009[2]. He first posted it publicly in an art thread on the design forum Yay Hooray, where it started getting passed around[2]. - **Platform:** Hip hop lyrics (phrase) / Yay Hooray (GIF) / Reddit (viral spread) - **Creator:** Omar Noory (strutting kid GIF) - **Date:** 2000 ## Overview Haters Gonna Hate is a dismissive comeback aimed at anyone talking trash, usually delivered with a slow strut and zero eye contact. The format almost always pairs the phrase with a subject caught mid-swagger, whether that's a toddler, a bulldog, a cat walking away from an explosion, or a cartoon character posing like they own the block[1]. What makes the meme click is the mismatch between the confidence of the pose and the absurdity of the subject. Editors love slapping the caption on animals, babies, and reality TV screenshots because the strut reads as pure attitude no matter who's doing it[2]. The phrase also spawned the wider 'X-ers are gonna X' snowclone, a template 4chan users ran into the ground in 2010 by swapping in every verb they could think of[2]. ## How It Spread The word 'haters' had already been catalogued on Urban Dictionary back in August 2003, giving the slang a paper trail long before the GIF existed[3]. Image macros using the phrase started popping up in 2009, with subjects photographed mid-action and the caption slapped on top, and Urlesque documented a batch of 26 of them in May 2010[4]. A 4chan variations thread that same month kicked off the 'X-ers are gonna X' template, where users swapped 'haters' and 'hate' for any noun-verb pair that fit a picture[2]. Throughout 2011, Reddit became the main hub for the format, with more than 2,000 posts tagged with the phrase and animated GIFs of strutting animals dominating the front page[2]. In June 2011, BoingBoing ran a 'microscopic GIF edition' collecting tiny versions of the strut, and on January 25th, 2012, Urban Dictionary named 'Haters Gonna Hate' its Word of the Day[5]. ## How to Use The typical build is a photo or GIF of someone or something walking, posing, or otherwise looking unbothered, with 'Haters Gonna Hate' as the caption. Common convention pairs the phrase with subjects who shouldn't logically care about criticism, like babies, dogs, or cartoon villains, and the strut is often exaggerated or looped. The snowclone version swaps in any verb, following the 'X-ers are gonna X' pattern popularized on 4chan[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Haters Gonna Hate? It's a catchphrase used to brush off criticism, usually paired with an image or GIF of a subject strutting or posing with total confidence[1]. ### Where did Haters Gonna Hate come from? The phrase comes from the 2000 3LW song 'Playas Gon' Play,' and the strutting kid GIF that fueled the visual meme was drawn by artist Omar Noory in November 2008[2]. ### What does Haters Gonna Hate mean? It means the speaker doesn't care what critics think, treating hostile comments as background noise from people who were going to complain no matter what[1]. ### How do you use Haters Gonna Hate? Slap the phrase on a photo or GIF of someone walking away or posing with attitude, or use the 'X-ers are gonna X' snowclone that 4chan popularized in May 2010[2]. ### Is Haters Gonna Hate still popular? It's a classic reaction format from the early 2010s Reddit era, with more than 2,000 posts tied to the phrase during its 2011 peak, and it's still recognized as a staple catchphrase[2]. ## References 1. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Haters%20Gonna%20Hate]() 2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/haters-gonna-hate]() 3. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=haters]() 4. [https://www.urlesque.com/2010/05/26-haters-gonna-hate-images/]() 5. [https://boingboing.net/2011/06/haters-gonna-hate-microscopic-edition.html]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/haters-gonna-hate Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library