What is This Is So Sad Alexa Play Despacito?

It is a 2018 catchphrase and phrasal template based on a mock conversation with Amazon's Alexa assistant, where a user asks Alexa to play 'Despacito' in response to sad news.

Where did This Is So Sad Alexa Play Despacito come from?

Tumblr user bisexuael (first name Garrett) posted the original line on June 19, 2018 after his cat ate his spaghetti, and the post hit 41,000+ notes within a week.

What does This Is So Sad Alexa Play Despacito mean?

The line reads as a half-hearted, 'extremely online' reaction to tragedy, where the user hears bad news and immediately asks a smart speaker to play a cheerful hit instead of actually responding.

How do you use This Is So Sad Alexa Play Despacito?

Reply to a sad message, news clip, or fictional death scene with 'this is so sad, Alexa play [song],' often swapping 'Despacito' for a song that clashes with the mood.

Is This Is So Sad Alexa Play Despacito still popular?

Peak usage ran through June and July 2018 on Tumblr and Twitter; it is now a recognized classic text template rather than an active trend.

This Is So Sad Alexa Play Despacito

2018catchphraseclassic

Published October 2, 2026

This Is So Sad Alexa Play Despacito is a 2018 catchphrase and phrasal template that started as a random Tumblr post by user bisexuael after his cat ate his spaghetti2. The mock command to Amazon's Alexa assistant jumped to Twitter within days, where swapping 'Despacito' for other songs turned the line into a widely copied remix format of that summer.

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Overview

The template is a two-step bit, a sad statement followed by a reply reading 'this is so sad, Alexa play [song],' usually a track with an absurd tonal mismatch to the moment1. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's 2017 Spanish-language hit 'Despacito' was the default fill, but users swapped in Jonas Brothers tracks, movie themes, and K-pop songs within days of the original post1.

Many versions paired the line with a short skit about a character's dramatic death, borrowing the structure of Reddit's early-2018 'This Is So Sad! Can we hit 50 likes?' deep-fried meme format3. The joke sits on the half-hearted sincerity of the Alexa response, where the user hears tragic news and would rather queue up a bop than actually grieve2.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Tumblr (viral spread on Twitter)

Creator

bisexuael

Date

2018

The earliest known usage was posted to Tumblr by user bisexuael on June 19, 20184. The author, who gave his first name as Garrett, told New York magazine's Select/All that he wrote the post 'because my cat ate my spaghetti when I wasn't looking,' adding that 'Despacito' was 'a pretty good song but the meme is so funny to me'2. The post picked up more than 41,000 notes within a week3.

How It Spread

Within days, Tumblr users were plugging different songs into the line. On June 23, 2018, user evilanelle posted 'this is so sad alexa play sos by the jonas brothers,' pulling more than 5,600 notes in a week5. Four days later, lesbianbey tried 'this is so sad alexa play the winter soldier theme' and hit nearly 1,000 notes in under 24 hours7.

The catchphrase crossed to Twitter the same week. On June 27, user @seokjinuchiha tweeted 'can't believe Germany lost and all of México collectively went this is so sad alexa play fake love by bts,' pegging the format to Mexico's upset win over Germany at the 2018 World Cup6. The tweet pulled over 15,000 retweets and 37,000 likes in 24 hours1. Users ran the template through pop culture scenes, from Regina George's bus crash in Mean Girls8 to T'Challa's ritual-combat death in Black Panther9.

The Daily Dot and New York magazine both covered the meme in late June 2018, with the Daily Dot calling it a 'word salad-like' line that worked best as a flippant reply to any sad event1 2.

Timeline

2018-06-19

Tumblr user bisexuael posts the original 'this is so sad alexa play despacito' after his cat eats his spaghetti.

2018-06-23

Tumblr user evilanelle swaps in a Jonas Brothers track, launching the song-replacement variant.

2018-06-27

Tumblr user lesbianbey posts a Winter Soldier theme version; @seokjinuchiha ties the line to Mexico's World Cup win over Germany on Twitter.

2018-06-28

New York magazine's Select/All interviews the creator (Garrett) and publishes the explainer that cements the origin story.

2018-06

The Daily Dot covers the catchphrase as a mainstream meme moment.

How to Use This Meme

The common convention is to pair a short sad statement with the reply 'this is so sad, Alexa play [song].' The song typically clashes with the mood on purpose, the sharper the mismatch, the sharper the joke. A longer version stages a two-person skit in which the first character dies or hits a disaster and the second answers with the Alexa line1.