# The Struggle Is Real The Struggle Is Real is a catchphrase borrowed from hip hop that mutated into an ironic online stand-in for 'first world problems' around 2013, used to crank up the drama on tiny inconveniences. Urban Dictionary, Facebook pages, BuzzFeed listicles and Reddit all picked it up within a year, turning the phrase into a go-to caption for exaggerated hardship memes. ## Origin The phrase itself predates the internet and is tied to rap music, where artists used it earnestly to describe real hardship. The hip hop group DTMD included a track called 'The Struggle Is Real' on their September 27, 2011 album Makin' Dollas, one of the earliest clearly dated musical uses of the exact phrase[3]. The ironic online version took shape in mid-2013. On July 25, 2013, YouTuber DashieXP posted a comedy sketch titled 'Struggle is Real!' in which one friend badgers another for favors, which helped push the phrase in front of a younger online audience[6]. A few months later, on October 11, 2013, Urban Dictionary user nobranknerms submitted the definition framing it as an 'ironic saying often used in place of' first world problems, locking in the sarcastic reading that spread from there[1]. - **Platform:** Hip hop lyrics / YouTube / Urban Dictionary (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2013 ## Overview The Struggle Is Real is a sarcastic sympathy line used to dress up a trivial setback as a genuine hardship, with the humor sitting in the gap between the dramatic phrasing and the pettiness of the complaint[2]. People reach for it when the WiFi drops, the drive-thru order gets botched or the dining hall milk machine runs low, treating a mild annoyance as if it were a real crisis[4]. The tone is almost always ironic online, which is why Urban Dictionary's October 2013 entry pinned it as a swap-in for 'first world problems'[1]. In practice the catchphrase works as a caption on image macros, a reply in comments, and a title for photo posts that frame a minor inconvenience as world-ending, with Reddit posts about everyday snags like loading a CD binder or filling a milk jug drawing thousands of upvotes[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is The Struggle Is Real? It is a catchphrase used, almost always ironically online, to make a tiny inconvenience sound like a serious hardship, in the same spirit as 'first world problems'[1]. ### Where did The Struggle Is Real come from? The phrase comes out of rap lyrics about real hardship, including a 2011 DTMD track of the same name, before it mutated into an ironic online catchphrase in 2013[3][1]. ### What does The Struggle Is Real mean? Online it is a sarcastic acknowledgment that a minor annoyance, like a bad drive-thru order or a stocked-out cafeteria, feels disproportionately painful in the moment[2]. ### How do you use The Struggle Is Real? People typically slap it on photo captions, image macros or reply threads about everyday setbacks, as with the r/funny CD binder and cafeteria milk posts that each cleared thousands of upvotes[5][4]. ### Is The Struggle Is Real still popular? It is a classic internet catchphrase from the 2013 to 2014 era that is still used casually as shorthand for exaggerated complaints, though its peak as a dedicated meme format was mid-2010s[2]. ## References 1. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=The%20struggle%20is%20real]() 2. [https://www.facebook.com/ThestruggleREALL]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-struggle-is-real]() 4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/2k42dw/the_college_student_struggle_is_real/]() 5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/2d06xk/back_in_my_day_the_struggle_was_real/]() 6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZSGeuX_xYk]() 7. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/analuisa1234/28-times-the-struggle-was-real-fxd2]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-struggle-is-real Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library