What is #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling?

It's a Twitter hashtag from June 2017 where British users listed trivial everyday annoyances to mock American media claims that Britain was "reeling" after the London Bridge terror attack.

Where did #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling come from?

The hashtag started on June 4, 2017, after The New York Times described Britain as "still reeling" following the London Bridge attack. Twitter user @AndyGilder coined the hashtag with "Putting milk first in the tea".

What does #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling mean?

It sarcastically lists mundane British grievances (bad tea, queue-jumping, weather complaints) to show that these petty annoyances bother Brits more than terrorism, rejecting the narrative of a frightened nation.

How do you use #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling?

Pair the hashtag with a stereotypically British minor complaint. The more trivial and quintessentially British, the better. Tea-related offenses and public transport frustrations are especially popular.

Is #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling still popular?

The hashtag was primarily a one-day phenomenon tied to the June 2017 London Bridge attack. It is best understood as a classic example of hashtag activism through British humor rather than an ongoing format.

What did John Oliver say about #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling?

Oliver devoted the opening of his June 4, 2017 episode of *Last Week Tonight* to the hashtag, calling the "reeling" and "under siege" framing "insulting" and praising the hashtag as "an uplifting demonstration of quintessentially British defiance".

Who was the man carrying his pint while fleeing London Bridge?

An unidentified man was photographed still holding his beer while evacuating the scene. John Oliver called him "a one-man walking Keep Calm and Carry On poster," and the image went viral as a symbol of British defiance.

Did The New York Times change its headline?

Yes. The NYT changed its headline from referencing a nation "still reeling" to "Another Terrorist Attack Strikes the Heart of London" after the backlash, though the original wording had already been widely screenshotted.

What were the most popular #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling tweets?

Top entries included "When people make tea in the microwave," "Bake Off being sold to C4," "People who stand to the left on the Tube escalator," and "A 'pie' turning out to be a casserole in a ramekin with a pastry lid".

Thingsthatleavebritainreeling

Q: What did J.K. Rowling say about Britain "reeling"?

Rowling tweeted: "The thugs who mowed down innocent people would love to think of the UK 'reeling' but it isn't. Don't confuse grief with lack of courage." The tweet received over 23,000 retweets and 79,000 likes.

2017Hashtag / Twitter trendclassic

Published March 30, 2026

Also known as: Things That Leave Britain Reeling

#ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling is a Twitter hashtag that went viral on June 4, 2017, after American news outlets described Britain as "reeling" in the wake of the London Bridge terror attack. British Twitter users pushed back with dry humor, listing mundane everyday annoyances like improperly made tea, queue-jumpers, and shrinking chocolate boxes as the things that *truly* leave Britain reeling. The hashtag became a widely covered example of British defiance through sarcasm, with a dedicated segment on *Last Week Tonight with John Oliver* and coverage from the BBC, Newsweek, and dozens of other outlets.

british memes hashtag memes sarcasm memes political satire memes

Overview

#ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling is a hashtag built on a simple comedic premise: if American media thinks terrorism leaves Britain "reeling," here's what *actually* rattles the British public. The format invites users to name the most stereotypically British minor grievances they can think of, from someone making tea in the microwave to people standing on the wrong side of a Tube escalator. Each tweet pairs the hashtag with a complaint so trivial it mocks the idea that the nation could be shaken by violence. The humor draws heavily on the "Keep Calm and Carry On" tradition, British self-deprecation, and the cultural norm of treating understatement as a national sport.

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Key People

@AndyGilder, @A_V_M_L, J.K. Rowling

Date

2017

On the night of June 3, 2017, three attackers drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and then stabbed people at bars around Borough Market, killing seven and injuring 481. In the early hours of June 4, The New York Times tweeted: "The London attacks hit a nation still reeling from the shock of the bombing in Manchester almost 2 weeks ago"2. The headline provoked an immediate backlash from British users who felt the word "reeling" misrepresented their response to the attacks.

Twitter user @A_V_M_L responded to the NYT with a black-and-white photograph of a woman drinking tea atop rubble, captioned "This is what 'reeling' means in British English @nytimes." That tweet picked up more than 6,500 retweets and 17,400 likes within 24 hours6. J.K. Rowling also fired back: "The thugs who mowed down innocent people would love to think of the UK 'reeling' but it isn't. Don't confuse grief with lack of courage." Her post drew over 23,000 retweets and 79,000 likes in the same period3.

The first person to actually coin the hashtag was Twitter user @AndyGilder, who posted "Putting milk first in the tea #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling" on June 4. That tweet earned more than 260 retweets and 880 likes6. Within hours, the hashtag was trending across the UK and internationally.

How It Spread

Once the hashtag hit trending, thousands of British users piled in with their own entries. Popular tweets covered a predictable range of national pet peeves: "Accidental eye contact on the tube or in a lift," "When people make tea in the microwave," "Bake Off being sold to C4," "Leaves on the line," and "People who stand to the left on the Tube escalator"3. One user wrote that "A 'pie' turning out to be a casserole in a ramekin with a pastry lid" was the real national crisis3. Others complained about shrinking boxes of Quality Street, the rising price of Freddo bars, and the eternal debate over how to pronounce "scone"1.

The hashtag reached more than one million people by Sunday morning, according to social media analytics cited by Newsweek2. Journalist Nick Cohen told the NYT it "doesn't get Britain" and that Brits would show "Blitz spirit," with several users sharing wartime photos of Londoners carrying on amid the rubble10. The NYT eventually changed its headline to "Another Terrorist Attack Strikes the Heart of London," but the backlash was already unstoppable1.

On the evening of June 4, John Oliver opened *Last Week Tonight* with a segment devoted to the hashtag and the broader media framing4. "For the record, in no way is Britain 'under siege,'" Oliver said. "Is it upset? Yes. Is it pissed off? Oh, you fucking bet it's pissed off. But to say it's 'under siege' and that its people are 'reeling' is to imply that it's somehow weak enough to be brought to its knees by three monumental assholes"5. He called the hashtag "an uplifting demonstration of quintessentially British defiance"9.

Oliver's segment also highlighted the viral image of a man fleeing the London Bridge scene while still gripping his pint of beer, describing him as "a one-man walking 'Keep Calm and Carry On' poster"4. He closed by toasting Richard Angell, director of the think tank Progress, who had returned to Borough Market the next day to pay his dinner bill and gave a widely shared interview declaring he would "do it more, not less" in defiance9. The segment was itself covered by The Daily Beast, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, and other outlets, giving the hashtag a second wave of visibility4 5.

BBC Newsbeat compiled a roundup of standout tweets, noting grievances about toilet rolls hung the wrong way, people eating Kit Kats incorrectly, and the confusion about bin collection days after a bank holiday1. Newsweek framed the hashtag as a deliberate act of resistance, quoting user Sofie Jaehn: "Nobody is using #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling to laugh at a terrorist attack. We're using it to show we're not afraid after one"2.

Lionel Barber, then editor of the Financial Times, offered a curt summary of the British mood: "Reeling? Really? You guys don't know London"2.

How to Use This Meme

The format is straightforward. Take the hashtag #ThingsThatLeaveBritainReeling and pair it with a stereotypically British minor annoyance, the more mundane the better. The comedy relies on the gap between the gravity the word "reeling" implies and the triviality of the complaint. Common categories include:

- Tea crimes: Making tea in the microwave, putting milk in first, weak tea, running out of milk - Queue violations: Someone standing ambiguously near the back of a queue, queue-jumping, baskets-only lane with a trolley - Social awkwardness: Walking the same direction after saying goodbye, running out of ways to say "thanks" when someone holds multiple doors, not catching someone's name and spending decades avoiding introductions - Food outrages: Biting into chocolate and finding it's Hershey's not Cadbury, a pie that's actually a casserole with a pastry lid, shrinking boxes of Quality Street - Transport pain: Leaves on the line, people standing on the wrong side of the escalator, one passenger taking up multiple seats

The tone is typically dry and deadpan. Accompanying images are optional but often feature reaction photos, stock images, or historical wartime photographs for extra contrast.

Cultural Impact

The hashtag's biggest moment of mainstream crossover came through John Oliver's *Last Week Tonight* segment, which was itself reported on by Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast, Entertainment Weekly, and others4 5 9. The segment turned a trending Twitter hashtag into a televised commentary on transatlantic media framing and the politics of language around terrorism.

The Daily Mail, HuffPost, Metro, Liverpool Echo, Shortlist, PopSugar, Refinery29, and Ink Tank all ran dedicated articles compiling tweets and analyzing the cultural response3 7 8 10 11 12 13 14. BBC Newsbeat produced a visual roundup that itself went viral1. Newsweek positioned the hashtag within the longer British tradition of using humor as a coping mechanism, drawing parallels to the Blitz spirit2.

The trend also ran alongside related hashtags like #LondonWillNotFall and #LondonBridgeIsNotFallingDown, and the viral image of the man carrying his pint while evacuating, which became an unofficial mascot of the entire response3 7.

The Daily Mail noted that several users pointed out American gun violence statistics in contrast to the "under siege" framing, with one highlighting that Chicago alone had 762 homicides in 20168. The hashtag marked one of the more visible instances of British social media users collectively rejecting how foreign press characterized a domestic crisis.

Fun Facts

The New York Times quietly changed its headline after the backlash, swapping "still reeling" for "Another Terrorist Attack Strikes the Heart of London," but screenshots of the original had already spread too far1.

J.K. Rowling's pushback tweet hit 79,000 likes in 24 hours, making it one of the most-engaged responses to the media framing6.

One user pointed out that "reeling" is actually a type of Scottish dance, adding another layer to the absurdity1.

The pint-carrying evacuee was never publicly identified but was compared to the Keep Calm and Carry On poster by both John Oliver and multiple news outlets4 7.

The hashtag trended higher than coverage of the attack itself at one point, prompting Refinery29 to note: "Love that #thingsthatleavebritainreeling is trending higher than the attack itself. Now THAT's what it means to be British"12.