# Letting Intrusive Thoughts Win Letting Intrusive Thoughts Win is a catchphrase that captions clips of celebrities and strangers doing something unhinged, deliberately mixing up impulsive urges with the clinical term for unwanted mental images. The 'he/she let intrusive thoughts win' construction first went viral on stan Twitter in June 2022 behind K-pop idol edits, and by April 2023 it had turned into a Facebook text format where users imagined the fallout of acting on an urge, exemplified by a Common Anomaly post with over 100,000 shares. ## Origin 'He let intrusive thoughts win' and 'she let intrusive thoughts win' first caught on in stan Twitter communities in June 2022, when fans captioned videos of K-pop idols doing something peculiar. Twitter user @hoseoksreally made one of the earliest widely circulated examples on June 5, 2022, which gathered over 2,100 retweets and 12,500 likes in its first year[1]. - **Platform:** Twitter (stan Twitter) / Facebook (parody format) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2022 ## Overview A typical post pairs footage of someone acting against social norms in public, often a K-pop idol making a strange face or a celebrity doing something out of character, with the caption 'he let intrusive thoughts win' or 'intrusive thoughts won'[1]. The joke runs on a mix-up: clinical intrusive thoughts are unwanted mental images people try to suppress, while the meme applies the term to any impulsive outburst, a confusion Twitter user @CrowleyCorvid called out in an October 2022 tweet that itself went viral[4]. Starting in April 2023, the catchphrase spawned a text variant where users spelled out exactly what they would do if they stopped resisting, narrating petty or absurd actions as the inevitable outcome of surrender[5]. A frequent setup names a mundane scenario, like standing behind a stranger in line, then describes an escalating stunt the poster claims they are holding back from doing. ## How to Use Users typically pair the caption 'he/she let intrusive thoughts win' or 'intrusive thoughts won' with a short video of someone acting erratically in public, often a celebrity or athlete captured mid-stunt. The April 2023 Facebook variant swaps the video for a first-person text description of a hypothetical outburst, with the caption framed as the result of giving in to the urge[7]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Letting Intrusive Thoughts Win? It is a catchphrase that captions clips of people doing something socially inappropriate in public, framing their behavior as the result of surrendering to an urge they could not suppress[5]. ### Where did Letting Intrusive Thoughts Win come from? The phrase first went viral on stan Twitter in June 2022, with @hoseoksreally posting an early widely shared example on June 5, 2022, captioning a K-pop idol video[1]. ### What does Letting Intrusive Thoughts Win mean? The meme uses 'intrusive thoughts' to describe any impulsive outburst, a confusion Twitter user @CrowleyCorvid flagged in an October 2022 tweet, since clinical intrusive thoughts are unwanted mental images, not actions[4]. ### How do you use Letting Intrusive Thoughts Win? Users caption a video of someone acting erratically with 'he/she let intrusive thoughts win,' or write a text post describing a hypothetical stunt they claim they are holding back from doing, as popularized by Facebook page Common Anomaly in April 2023[7]. ### Is Letting Intrusive Thoughts Win still popular? The catchphrase peaked across 2022 and 2023, with a notable Hasbulla parody tweet in February 2023 earning over 181,000 likes, and the April 2023 Common Anomaly Facebook post pulling in over 100,000 shares[6]. ## References 1. [https://twitter.com/hoseoksreally/status/1533648998124355584]() 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sERZwIC2aKg]() 3. [https://www.tiktok.com/@sbeveboi/video/7120567611330399489]() 4. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221005233138/https://twitter.com/CrowleyCorvid/status/1577378768791945242]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/letting-intrusive-thoughts-win]() 6. [https://twitter.com/HasbullaHive/status/1621908506227150849]() 7. [https://www.facebook.com/common.anomaly.7/posts/pfbid02TqXqBHMqbEFfPBwBtkDPaa5mBtmHkxnWRungHNY1A9PGU5Qz81Towak7F3dX4Sbul]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/letting-intrusive-thoughts-win Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library