What is Imagine How Tired We Are?

It is a Twitter reaction video clipped from a 2018 Good Morning America interview with Rose McGowan, used to express exasperation at someone else's complaint.

Where did Imagine How Tired We Are come from?

The line came from McGowan's May 25, 2018 GMA appearance about Harvey Weinstein's arrest, where she spoke for sexual assault survivors.

What does Imagine How Tired We Are mean?

In its original context McGowan was voicing survivor exhaustion; as a meme it means "your complaint is nothing compared to what my group deals with".

How do you use Imagine How Tired We Are?

Posters set up a quote or scenario from an outsider, then attach the clip as the deadpan reply from the in-group, as @aIonsogarcia did with blackout jokes in September 2019.

Is Imagine How Tired We Are still popular?

The format peaked in late August and September 2019 with viral tweets from @dewnotwayt and @aIonsogarcia and reached mainstream coverage via The Tab on September 4, 2019.

Imagine How Tired We Are

2018reaction videodeclining

Published November 15, 2026

Rose McGowan said "imagine how tired we are" during a May 2018 Good Morning America appearance about Harvey Weinstein's arrest, speaking for sexual assault survivors. Fifteen months later, Twitter users began clipping that single line as a reaction video for anything mildly exhausting, from stan account complaints to Sims bathroom accidents. By September 2019, reposts were hitting 40,000 likes and UK outlet The Tab published an explainer on the trend.

celebrity reaction memes reaction memes delayed virality memes catchphrase memes resigned acceptance memes

Overview

Posts built on Imagine How Tired We Are typically open with a setup describing someone else's trivial complaint or dramatic statement, then cut to the McGowan clip as the deadpan reply from a group that has heard it before. Humor comes from the contrast, with a weighty moment from a sexual assault survivor repurposed to answer things like Simmers watching their characters pee themselves or horoscope fans explaining emotional water moons1. Replies tend to run visual, with the clip loaded directly into the tweet rather than linked out.

Most versions pair McGowan's line with an implied in-group speaking back to an outsider, which is why early entries targeting stan accounts and niche fandoms caught on first4. By September 2019 the reaction was being applied to K-pop verse ordering, drinking stories and religious parasocial jokes, and The Tab called the format writer Bella Eckert's "whole mood for 2019"1.

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Origin & Background

Platform

ABC Good Morning America (source clip) / Twitter (viral spread)

Date

2018

Rose McGowan appeared on ABC's Good Morning America on May 25, 2018 to discuss the arrest of Harvey Weinstein, whose alleged abuses her reporting helped bring to light during the #MeToo movement. During the interview she said, "People are so sad. And they're sick of it. But imagine how tired we are, imagine how tired we are of it," referring to survivors of sexual assault4. The segment was uploaded to YouTube the same day and sat for more than a year before Twitter users isolated the single line as a reaction5.

How It Spread

Momentum built in late August 2019 after a Twitter account called itstarekali posted a trimmed version of the clip, though that tweet was later deleted4. On August 25, 2019, @dewnotwayt attached the clip to a joke about "jesus stans" complaining when fans go a few days without hearing from their fave, and the post picked up roughly 20,200 likes and 5,800 retweets over the following weeks2.

A week later on September 1, 2019, @aIonsogarcia used the clip to show what friends say when someone announces they are "tired of blacking out all the time," collecting about 39,900 likes and 8,200 retweets within sixteen days3. Similar riffs followed covering horoscope water moons6, Sims players worn out by their characters' bathroom accidents7 and K-pop fans ranking verse order on BLACKPINK's "Kill This Love." On September 4, 2019, UK student outlet The Tab published an explainer tracing the format back to the 2018 interview1.

Timeline

2018-05-25

Rose McGowan appears on Good Morning America and says "imagine how tired we are" while discussing Harvey Weinstein's arrest.

2019-07

Twitter user itstarekali posts a trimmed clip of the McGowan line; the tweet is later deleted.

2019-08-25

@dewnotwayt applies the clip to "jesus stans," picking up around 20,200 likes.

2019-09-01

@aIonsogarcia uses the clip to answer friends claiming to be tired of blacking out; the tweet pulls roughly 39,900 likes.

2019-09-04

The Tab publishes an explainer on the Imagine How Tired We Are reaction format.

How to Use This Meme

People typically quote tweet or reply with the clip when someone voices a complaint that the responder's own group already deals with at a worse level. The common convention is to frame the setup as a dramatic statement from an outsider, then let the McGowan clip play as the collective eye roll, often without any added caption3.