# That's just like, your opinion, man The Dude's dismissive line from the 1998 Coen brothers film The Big Lebowski became one of the internet's favorite retorts for shutting down long-winded or subjective arguments. Forum posters started quoting it as early as 2000, and by the mid-2000s it was a shorthand rebuttal on par with TL;DR. ## Origin The phrase comes from a bowling-alley exchange in the Coen brothers' 1998 comedy The Big Lebowski, where Jeff Bridges' character The Dude answers a taunt with a shrugging "Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man"[1]. The film flopped on release but built a cult audience over the next several years, and the quote became one of its most repeated lines[3]. The earliest known internet reuse of the phrase as a retort turned up on the Straight Dope Message Board on August 15, 2000, inside a thread rounding up memorable movie quotes[4]. From there it drifted into general forum use rather than being tied to a single originating post. - **Platform:** The Big Lebowski (film) / forums (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 1998 ## Overview The line works as a low-effort rebuttal on forums and imageboards, framing an opponent's argument as pure subjectivity so the poster does not have to engage with it. It sits in the same family as TL;DR and Didn't read, LOL, though it carries the extra weight of a fan-favorite film quote delivered in Jeff Bridges' unbothered drawl[1]. Usage ranges from the full sentence to the acronym TJLYOM, which Urban Dictionary logged in December 2006[2]. Image macros pair the phrase with stills of The Dude in his bathrobe and sunglasses, and the format later stretched to other pop-culture faces standing in for the original speaker[3]. The line's popularity also fed the wider Dude fandom, including the online religion Dudeism (The Church of the Latter-Day Dude), launched in 2005 with tens of thousands of self-described priests[3]. ## How It Spread Through the early and mid-2000s the line spread across forum culture as a stock comeback. Political posters on Democratic Underground used it in the headers of debate threads[5], and music arguments on Ask MetaFilter borrowed it in the same shrugging register[6]. The quote's ambiguity, half-agreement, half-brushoff, made it a fit for almost any thread where a poster wanted to end an exchange without conceding anything. By December 2006 the acronym TJLYOM had its own Urban Dictionary entry, a sign the phrase was common enough on forums to warrant shorthand[2]. A dedicated Facebook page collecting the quote passed 871 likes by April 2012, and the line kept showing up on YTMND edits and image macros built from Big Lebowski screenshots[3]. Alongside the meme itself, Dudeism gave fans a joke-religion home for The Dude's broader philosophy, which helped keep the quote in circulation[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is That's just like, your opinion, man? It is a catchphrase pulled from The Big Lebowski (1998) that forum users deploy as a dismissive retort against subjective or long-winded posts[1]. ### Where did That's just like, your opinion, man come from? The Dude, played by Jeff Bridges, says it during a taunting exchange in the Coen brothers' 1998 film The Big Lebowski[1]. ### What does That's just like, your opinion, man mean? It reframes an opponent's argument as pure personal opinion, brushing off the point instead of engaging with it, similar in function to TL;DR[3]. ### How do you use That's just like, your opinion, man? Posters typically drop the full line or its acronym TJLYOM under a rant they want to dismiss, often paired with an image macro of The Dude[2]. ### Is That's just like, your opinion, man still popular? It is a classic quote-meme with a long history of forum use going back to 2000, and it still circulates as a Big Lebowski reference[4]. ## References 1. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/quotes]() 2. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TJLYOM&defid=2136878]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/thats-just-like-your-opinion-man]() 4. [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=703234]() 5. [https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1240&pid=38445]() 6. [https://ask.metafilter.com/61405/Well-thats-just-like-your-OPINION-man]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/thats-just-like-your-opinion-man Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library