What is It Really Do Be Like That Sometimes?

It's a 2017 catchphrase paired with a photoshopped Dr. Phil Green M&M image that gets used as a shrug at everyday letdowns.

Where did It Really Do Be Like That Sometimes come from?

The image and caption first appeared in a June 24, 2017 tweet by Twitter user @sethical_.

What does It Really Do Be Like That Sometimes mean?

The phrase is a resigned acknowledgment that life has rough patches, extending an older slang expression 'it be like that sometimes' that Urban Dictionary logged back in 2006.

How do you use It Really Do Be Like That Sometimes?

People typically post the Dr. Phil M&M image with a caption describing a minor setback or betrayal, then drop the phrase as the punchline, often read in a mock Italian accent.

Is It Really Do Be Like That Sometimes still popular?

The catchphrase peaked across 2017 and 2018 through YouTube skits and Twitter reaction posts, and by 2018 it had settled into the classic reaction meme category.

It Really Do Be Like That Sometimes

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Published September 1, 2026

It Really Do Be Like That Sometimes started with a June 2017 tweet from @sethical_ that dropped a photoshopped Dr. Phil Green M&M into the 'You Know I Had to Do It to Em' template with a caption about being forgotten by an old friend2. Days later, the same image showed up in the viral 'Bone-In Pizza' YouTube skit and turned the Dr. Phil M&M into the internet's go-to face for shrugging at life's small disappointments1.

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Overview

The joke pairs the doctored picture with the line 'it really do be like that sometimes,' usually delivered in an exaggerated fake Italian accent when spoken out loud7. The visual half is a Green M&M with Dr. Phil McGraw's head grafted onto the character's body, sometimes shown next to Eminem in the original 'You Know I Had to Do It to Em' layout and sometimes cropped by itself as a standalone reaction4.

The line itself predates the meme. Urban Dictionary logged a definition for 'it be like that sometimes' back on July 11, 2006, calling it a shrug about life's ups and downs7. What @sethical_'s June 2017 post added was a face to pin the phrase to, turning a floating slang expression into a specific image macro tied to one recognizable character2.

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Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter / YouTube (viral spread)

Creator

@sethical_

Date

2017

On June 24, 2017, Twitter user @sethical_ posted the doctored Dr. Phil Green M&M image with the tweet caption 'when the homie forgot you now that he up 😔'2. The picture itself was built by pasting Dr. Phil's head onto the Green M&M and dropping the result into the 'You Know I Had to Do It to Em' Eminem meme layout, then captioning the image with the phrase 'it really do be like that sometimes'4. The tweet picked up more than 90 retweets and 300 likes over the following year2.

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How It Spread

Three days after the original tweet, sethical folded the Dr. Phil M&M and its catchphrase into a short YouTube skit titled 'Bone-In Pizza,' which pulled in more than 2.5 million views within a year of upload1. That video did most of the heavy lifting in pushing the character outside Twitter and into the wider YouTube ecosystem.

On June 29, 2017, YouTuber gibby used the phrase in a video of their own6. Five days later, on July 4, YouTuber Koten SilverStreak dropped an edit placing the Dr. Phil M&M into Childish Gambino's 'Redbone' music video, and that clip pulled in more than 80,000 views over the following year3.

By the middle of the next summer, the meme had reached the 'where did this come from' stage. On June 19, 2018, Redditor the_lazarus_heart posted a thread on r/OutOfTheLoop asking about the origin of 'it really do be like that sometimes,' and the thread cleared 90 points with a 93 percent upvote ratio inside a month5.

How to Use This Meme

The template typically pairs the Dr. Phil Green M&M image with a caption describing a small everyday letdown, then uses the phrase as the punchline4. Spoken versions often lean into a mock Italian accent for extra flavor7.