"I Bet the Jews Did This" — Man holding tangled Christmas lights with caption I BET THE JEWS DID THIS

"I Bet the Jews Did This"

2009image macroclassic

Published October 26, 2026

"I Bet the Jews Did This" is an ironic catchphrase that mocks antisemitic conspiracy thinking by pairing it with a stock photo of a middle-aged man fuming at a tangled knot of Christmas lights. The image macro surfaced on 4chan's /b/ board in May 2009 and later picked up snowclone edits, including a 2013 Anita Sarkeesian version swapping in "the patriarchy" on the /r/thankspatriarchy subreddit.

catchphrase memes 4chan memes snowclone memes conspiracy memes stock photo exploitables

Overview

The image macro places bold white caption text over a ThinkStock photograph of a visibly frustrated middle-aged man wrestling with a knotted strand of Christmas lights4. The caption blames his everyday failure on a Jewish conspiracy, which flips the joke back onto the type of poster who actually makes that argument in earnest, in the same ironic register as the "Thanks, Obama!" format3.

Snowclone edits keep the photo but swap the scapegoat for whichever group fits the target of the parody, as in the "I bet the patriarchy did this!" version featuring Anita Sarkeesian's face overlaid on the frustrated man5. A separate strain of the joke dropped the stock photo altogether and attached the catchphrase to looping sports GIFs where a player appears to mouth the words2.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan /b/ (origin), Reddit and Imgur (viral spread)
Date
2009

The earliest known captioned version of the image was posted to 4chan's /b/ (random) board on May 28, 2009, and archived on Chan4chan1. The source photograph is a ThinkStock stock image titled "Angry Man With Tangled Christmas Lights," credit id 87622745, which was already circulating as a go-to reaction image for everyday frustration4. Because the original /b/ thread is anonymous, no individual meme creator is confirmed3.

How It Spread

The joke moved off /b/ and onto Reddit by late 2012. On October 5, 2012, Redditor banned_from_all_subs submitted an animated GIF to /r/gif showing Cristiano Ronaldo appearing to mouth "the Jews did this," done in the style of a Bad Lip Reading edit; the post sat at 829 upvotes by May 20152. On March 27, 2013, a companion Ronaldo GIF captioned "COME ON, JEWS!" went up on Imgur, framed as the player reacting to a supposed conspiracy to hand Messi the Ballon d'Or5.

The snowclone form crossed into feminist-adjacent irony on April 9, 2013, when Redditor Wizuhd posted an edited macro to /r/thankspatriarchy that pasted Anita Sarkeesian's face onto the angry man and swapped the caption to "I bet the patriarchy did this!"6. The subreddit, which parodies reflexive patriarchy blame the same way the original parodies antisemitic conspiracy talk, pushed the edit past 100 upvotes over the following two years6.

Timeline

2009-05-28

The earliest known captioned macro is posted to 4chan's /b/ board and later archived on Chan4chan[1].

2012-10-05

Redditor banned_from_all_subs posts the Cristiano Ronaldo "the Jews did this" GIF to /r/gif[2].

2013-03-27

A second Ronaldo GIF captioned "COME ON, JEWS!" is uploaded to Imgur[5].

2013-04-09

Redditor Wizuhd posts the Anita Sarkeesian "I bet the patriarchy did this!" edit to /r/thankspatriarchy[6].

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