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Really Makes You Think

2016catchphraseclassic

Published September 24, 2026

Really Makes You Think is a sarcastic catchphrase that took hold on 4chan's /pol/ board in 2016, deployed to mock shallow political cartoons, conspiracy theories, and bait posts pretending to be profound. It spread through election-season bait threads and got its unofficial mascot in a clip of Bart Simpson uttering the line, spawning one of the defining sarcasm formats of the 2016 US Presidential Election cycle.

sarcasm memes catchphrase memes 4chan memes political satire memes bait and switch memes

Overview

The phrase works as a deadpan sign-off on posts pretending to be deep, aimed at political cartoons, conspiracy diagrams, and screenshots of tweets that flatter their own audience1. Users tack it under an image with an ellipsis, often paired with a thinking-face or a still of Bart Simpson mouthing the words, letting the sarcasm do the work3. The joke lands because the caption is played straight, mimicking earnest reactions from subreddits like /r/Im14AndThisIsDeep where the line gets used without irony3.

On /pol/ during the 2016 election cycle, the format doubled as a bait tactic. A thread would post a liberal meme or news graphic under the title 'Really makes you think,' inviting an inevitable pile-on in the replies2. The companion phrase '/pol/ BTFO!' rode alongside it, framing left-wing talking points as self-owns3.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan /pol/ (viral spread)
Date
2016

One of the earliest documented uses of the phrase on 4chan's /pol/ was on April 21st, 2016, where a poster attached it as a caption to a political cartoon3. The exact artist of that cartoon isn't confirmed in surviving archives, and the line itself predates the board as a sincere English expression meaning 'this is thought-provoking'3.

By the end of May 2016, the phrase had shifted from a stray reply into a thread-title convention, with /pol/ users spinning up posts specifically built around variations like 'Hmmm.. really makes you think' and 'Damn... really makes you think'25.

How It Spread

Through the summer and fall of 2016, /pol/ threads captioned 'Really makes you think' multiplied, and the format bled into neighboring 4chan boards including /tv/, /k/, /r9k/ and [s4s]3. A YouTube clip of Bart Simpson saying the line became the standard visual pairing, with its comment section filling up with /pol/ regulars swapping election jokes and mocking liberal posters1.

The archived threads on 4plebs show the pattern in action: bait-style OP images posted under a straight-faced 'thinking' caption, with replies treating the setup as an obvious own25. Outside 4chan, the sincere version of the phrase kept circulating on Reddit's /r/Im14AndThisIsDeep, which mined earnest uses of it for irony fuel, feeding the two-way loop between genuine and sarcastic deployments3.

Timeline

2016-04-21

Earliest documented use of 'really makes you think' on 4chan's /pol/, captioning a political cartoon.

2016-05

Thread titles using 'Really makes you think' variations begin appearing on /pol/ archives.

2016-06

Bart Simpson 'Really Makes You Think' YouTube clip gets adopted as the standard visual pairing[1].

2016-11

Phrase peaks during the US Presidential Election, used to bait and mock left-wing memes on /pol/[3].

Frequently Asked Questions