That's Racist! — That's Racist boy with Shoop Da Whoop laser mouth effect

That's Racist!

2005reaction GIF / catchphraseclassic

Published October 1, 2026

That's Racist! is a reaction GIF and catchphrase pulled from a 2005 Wonder Showzen sketch, showing a kid mouthing the words straight at the camera. The clip spread through YTMND, 4chan and deviantART in the late 2000s before NPR declared it a mainstream quip in 2011, becoming the go-to retort for calling out faux offenses on the internet.

catchphrase memes reaction memes ytmnd memes gif memes race and identity memes

Overview

That's Racist! is a short animated GIF of a young boy mouthing the titular phrase directly at the viewer, usually captioned with the exact words. The clip is ripped from an animated sketch called "Plastic Surgeons Without Borders" on the MTV2 show Wonder Showzen, where the kid pops up right after the cartoon ends to level the accusation at the camera1.

Online, the GIF is used as a mock-serious retort rather than an actual callout. People drop it under posts that make the mildest racial reference, or under posts that have nothing to do with race at all, which is where most of the humor lives2. Common remixes include O RLY, 300 "This is Sparta" and Asian-styled edits of the same kid, all built around the same lip-sync beat3.

By the early 2010s the phrase had jumped off image boards into actual speech. NPR noted characters on Parks and Recreation using it to mock laundry sorting, and reported teens and comedians, including Hannibal Buress, using it ironically to needle people about overreactions2.

Origin & Background

Platform
MTV2 (source) / YTMND (viral spread)
Creator
Wonder Showzen
Date
2005

The source clip comes from Wonder Showzen, the MTV2 sketch show that aired from 2005 to 2006, specifically the animated segment "Plastic Surgeons Without Borders"1. In the bit, a Black child turns to the camera right after the cartoon and yells "That's racist!" The YouTube upload of the original segment is the most widely shared record of the moment4.

The internet life of the GIF began on June 4th, 2005, when a YTMND page titled That's Racist! was created, pairing the loop with sound1. On June 16th, 2005, deviantART user dmario uploaded a version to the art-sharing site, giving the GIF a second early home outside YTMND1.

How It Spread

After the YTMND and deviantART uploads, the GIF moved onto 4chan. The earliest archived /b/ thread featuring it was posted on May 10th, 2007 by an anonymous user1. In January 2008 a Bodybuilding.com forum member named An hero asked for the clip in a thread titled "'That's racist' gif," and replies produced the Wonder Showzen original along with O RLY, 300 and Asian remix variants that circulated for years afterward1.

The phrase kept picking up dedicated homes. The Tumblr blog "That is Racist" launched on March 4th, 2009, aggregating racial-humor image macros and GIFs1. Urban Dictionary got its first "that's racist" entry on August 11th, 2010, by user Kilokahn, logging the ironic usage1. On June 27th, 2011, NPR ran "'That's Racist!' How A Serious Accusation Became A Commonplace Quip," tracing the online meme into everyday speech and sitcom scripts2.

Reddit boosted it further. On February 6th, 2012, Redditor madturk77 posted the GIF to /r/gifs under a photo of a man in a sombrero captioned "Plays Uno / Steals all the green cards"5. Redditor LobaltSS reposted the same image to /r/funny on May 18th, 2012, where it pulled over 5,800 upvotes6. By July 2012 a Facebook page for "That's Racist" had passed 25,000 likes1. The Wonder Showzen clip also lent its name to the hip hop duo Das Racist, whose MC Himanshu Suri said the group's name was inspired by the sketch3.

Timeline

2005

Wonder Showzen airs "Plastic Surgeons Without Borders" on MTV2, source of the GIF.

2005-06-04

A YTMND page titled That's Racist! is created, giving the GIF its first viral home.

2005-06-16

DeviantART user dmario uploads the GIF to the art-sharing site.

2007-05-10

Earliest archived 4chan /b/ thread using the GIF is posted.

2008-01-20

Bodybuilding.com member An hero requests the GIF, prompting O RLY, 300 and Asian remix versions.

2009-03-04

Tumblr blog "That is Racist" launches, cataloging GIFs and image macros.

2011-06-27

NPR publishes a feature tracing the catchphrase's shift from accusation to joke.

2012-05-18

A /r/funny repost of the sombrero "green cards" image hits 5,800+ upvotes.

How to Use This Meme

Common convention is to drop the GIF or the words "That's racist!" under a post that made a race-adjacent joke, or more often one that didn't. The humor typically comes from how absurdly disproportionate the reaction is to the trigger, which is why Parks and Recreation got laughs applying it to sorting laundry2.

Frequently Asked Questions