# It Should Have Been Me Not Him! A dramatic line from the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! where Yami Yugi collapses after losing Yugi's soul became a reaction meme in 2021. YouTubers started splicing the clip onto the ends of lewd anime scenes to voice envy toward the characters receiving the action[1]. ## Origin The source footage comes from episode 158 of Yu-Gi-Oh!, which aired in the English dub on November 13th, 2004. In the scene, Yami Yugi loses a duel that costs Yugi his soul and screams, "It should've been me, not him! It's not fair!" while pounding the ground[3]. A clip of the moment was uploaded to YouTube on January 15th, 2020[4], and an HD rip followed in April 2021[1]. The exploitable format itself does not have a single named originator. Yu-Gi-Oh! is a 4Kids-dubbed property, so the company is the source of the footage but not of the meme; anonymous editors on YouTube built the splice format in mid-2021[1]. - **Platform:** Yu-Gi-Oh! (source), YouTube (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown (format popularized by YouTubers Shawnpai and Good Grief Chief) - **Date:** 2021 ## Overview The joke sticks the Yu-Gi-Oh! clip onto the tail of a steamy or affectionate anime moment, cutting from the character getting kissed, groped or confessed to directly into Yami Yugi's wail. Readers are meant to project onto Yami: the suffering guy on the floor is the viewer, and the lucky character onscreen is the 'him' who should have gone first[1]. A still frame of Yami mid-breakdown also works on its own as a reaction image. On 9GAG in October 2021, a user paired the screenshot with a Drake and Josh scene where Drake brushes off two goth girls, flipping the usual envy angle into mock outrage that someone would turn down attention the poster would gladly take[2]. The tone across both the video edits and the image macro stays melodramatic, since the humor depends on borrowing Yami's over-the-top anguish for very low stakes[3]. ## How It Spread Early traction came from Twitter, where @videoreacts posted the raw clip on January 30th, 2020. That post picked up more than 756,000 views and 180 likes across the next two years[3]. The splice format took hold in summer 2021. On July 27th, 2021, YouTuber Shawnpai attached the Yami clip to a scene from My First Girlfriend Is a Gal, and the video pulled over 15,000 views within nine months[5]. Good Grief Chief followed on September 8th, 2021 with an Akame ga Kill! edit that reached more than 170,000 views in seven months[6], helping lock the structure in place. From there, the format spread to image-based platforms. A 9GAG post on October 18th, 2021 used a captioned screenshot of Yami as a reaction to a Drake and Josh scene, gaining over 800 upvotes in six months[2]. Further YouTube edits kept circulating through late 2021 and into 2022, including compilation videos that strung multiple anime scenes together before the Yami cut[7][8]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is It Should Have Been Me Not Him!? It is a reaction meme that pairs Yami Yugi's dub meltdown from Yu-Gi-Oh! with lewd or affectionate anime scenes to voice envy toward the character on the receiving end[1]. ### Where did It Should Have Been Me Not Him! come from? The clip is from episode 158 of the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh!, which aired on November 13th, 2004, in a duel where Yami loses Yugi's soul[3]. ### What does It Should Have Been Me Not Him! mean? In meme use, Yami's grief is repurposed as mock jealousy: the poster wishes they were the character being kissed, confessed to, or otherwise lavished with attention onscreen[1]. ### How do you use It Should Have Been Me Not Him!? Editors typically cut from an anime scene featuring physical affection straight into the Yami clip, as Shawnpai did with My First Girlfriend Is a Gal[5] and Good Grief Chief did with Akame ga Kill![6]. ### Is It Should Have Been Me Not Him! still popular? Peak activity ran through late 2021 and into 2022 across YouTube and 9GAG[2], with the splice format still used as a stock reaction edit[1]. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2FTI0VoPn0]() 2. [https://9gag.com/gag/awzNE3y]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/it-should-have-been-me-not-him]() 4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAtwd7FwDi0]() 5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlnlH9aY1Ps]() 6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncts2ByeVE4]() 7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUGAY-cs5g0]() 8. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lcRJQQc5AQ]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/it-should-have-been-me-not-him Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library