# They Took Our Jobs! They Took Our Jobs! is a catchphrase from the April 2004 South Park episode 'Goobacks,' where construction worker Darryl Weathers rages about time-traveling future immigrants undercutting wages[2]. The slurred, panicked delivery turned the line into shorthand for mocking xenophobic anti-immigration talking points, spawning YTMND sites, soundboards, and image macros across the late 2000s and early 2010s[3]. ## Origin The phrase comes from 'Goobacks,' Season 8 Episode 7 of South Park, which aired on Comedy Central on April 28th, 2004[6]. In the episode, time-traveling laborers from a resource-depleted future flood South Park's job market by working for pennies, prompting a town hall where Darryl Weathers delivers the original 'They took our jobs' meltdown that the rest of the townspeople then parrot back in increasingly degraded English[2]. Urban Dictionary user Bob logged the phrase the very next day, April 29th, 2004, citing the South Park episode as the source[1]. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone wrote and directed the episode, which parodies the standard American immigration debate by swapping the usual nationalities for English-speaking descendants of all races from the future[6]. - **Platform:** South Park (TV) / YTMND (viral spread) - **Creator:** Trey Parker and Matt Stone - **Date:** 2004 ## Overview They Took Our Jobs! is a line yelled by construction worker Darryl Weathers in the South Park episode 'Goobacks,' which satirizes populist panic about immigrants stealing American labor[2]. The gag's humor hinges on the escalation: townspeople start repeating the phrase after Weathers, each delivery more mush-mouthed than the last, until it devolves into 'Dey turk er jerbs' and finally the unintelligible 'Durka durr'[1]. Online, the quote detached from the specific plot about time-travelers from the year 3045 and became a reaction catchphrase anytime someone complained about outsourcing, migrants, or automation. The meme typically appears as a soundboard clip, a YTMND page, or an image macro of Weathers mid-shout with escalating phonetic spellings in the caption[3]. The joke punches at the speaker, not the subject, since the garbled dialect reads as a parody of the xenophobe rather than endorsement. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is They Took Our Jobs!? It's a South Park catchphrase mocking anti-immigration panic, repeated in increasingly garbled pronunciations by townspeople in the 'Goobacks' episode[2]. ### Where did They Took Our Jobs! come from? It originated in South Park Season 8 Episode 7, 'Goobacks,' which aired on April 28th, 2004[6]. ### What does They Took Our Jobs! mean? The phrase satirizes xenophobic blame directed at immigrants for job losses, with the slurred delivery making the speaker, not the immigrants, the butt of the joke[1]. ### How do you use They Took Our Jobs!? People drop it as a sarcastic reaction to any news about outsourcing or migration, often via soundboards or image macros of Darryl Weathers with captions like 'Dey turk er jerbs'[6]. ### Is They Took Our Jobs! still popular? It's a classic South Park meme that stayed in rotation through soundboards, YTMND pages, and single-serving sites launched between 2005 and 2011[6]. ## References 1. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=They%20Took%20Our%20Jobs]() 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=768h3Tz4Qik]() 3. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uORAyORWRAA]() 4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brj2UkUPjCI]() 5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMJ2aP3n4es]() 6. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/they-took-our-jobs]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/they-took-our-jobs Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library