# Wait For It... "Wait For It..." is a suspense-building catchphrase popularized by Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother that migrated online as a video title and caption format. From a 2011 YouTube clip of a defensive-stance cat set to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to a 2014 Jimmy Kimmel soccer graphic GIF, the phrase became shorthand for teasing a payoff in slow-burn clips. ## Origin The dramatic interjection shows up in late-1990s and early-2000s screenplays, including Notting Hill[6], but its modern catchphrase form is tied to Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris on CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, which premiered in 2005[3]. Across the show's nine seasons, Barney said "wait for it" roughly 40 times, inserting the pause into words like "denied," "legendary," and "brother" to stretch a punchline out[1]. Vulture's complete rundown in 2014 traces the running gag back to the pilot and credits the show with lodging the phrase into everyday speech[1]. Urban Dictionary users began defining it in a similar vein, with one 2008 entry explicitly crediting How I Met Your Mother for popularizing the construction[4]. - **Platform:** Television (How I Met Your Mother) / YouTube (viral spread) - **Creator:** Barney Stinson (fictional character, played by Neil Patrick Harris) - **Date:** 2005 ## Overview "Wait For It..." is used to flag an incoming payoff before the setup even finishes, usually inserted mid-sentence or stamped onto a video title to promise viewers that the dull first ten seconds are worth sitting through[1]. Online, the convention is simple: tease a boring buildup, then deliver a sudden reveal that is funny, absurd, or physically improbable, often in a short clip under a minute long[3]. The written version typically shows up in YouTube titles and image captions where the ellipsis stands in for the pause itself, drawing out the "it" the way the show's character does. In speech, people stretch the phrase ("waaait for ittt...") and sometimes split a word around it, mimicking Barney Stinson's "legen, wait for it, dary" cadence from the sitcom[1][4]. ## How It Spread The phrase crossed over from a sitcom tag to a video-labeling convention through YouTube. On June 11th, 2008, an Urban Dictionary entry for "wait for it" credited How I Met Your Mother with popularizing the phrase[4]. In June 2011, YouTuber DoctorJay2012 uploaded "Thriller Cat...wait for it," a short clip of a cat walking in a stiff defensive stance scored to Michael Jackson's 1982 hit "Thriller," and the video pulled in more than 5.9 million views and 4,000 comments over the following three years[2]. On March 31st, 2014, Vulture published a compendium of every "wait for it" Barney Stinson delivered across the show's run, timed to the series finale[1]. That same year, a Jimmy Kimmel comedy sketch mocking US soccer broadcast graphics was clipped into an animated GIF and reposted under the title "Wait for it..." to the r/funny subreddit, where it collected thousands of upvotes[5]. The pattern locked in: a flat setup, the title promise, and a short payoff. As a title tag, "...wait for it" is still a reliable way to flag a slow-burn clip, and the Barney Stinson speech version is still quoted in references to the show[3][1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Wait For It...? It is a suspense-building catchphrase used in speech, video titles, and captions to tease an incoming payoff after a dull or slow setup[1]. ### Where did Wait For It... come from? It is tied to Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris on CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, which premiered in 2005[1][3]. ### What does Wait For It... mean? It signals that a boring or gradual buildup is about to be followed by a sudden, surprising, or funny reveal[3]. ### How do you use Wait For It...? People drop it into a sentence to stretch a punchline (e.g., "legen, wait for it, dary") or append it to a video title to promise a payoff[1][4]. ### Is Wait For It... still popular? The phrase is still a familiar tag on slow-burn clips and a widely quoted How I Met Your Mother bit, with Vulture cataloging all 40 uses on the show in 2014[1]. ## References 1. [https://www.vulture.com/2014/03/barney-stinson-wait-for-it-legendary-compendium.html]() 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqkYnfAhgy0]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wait-for-it]() 4. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wait%20For%20It]() 5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7ssVT6T3mQ]() 6. [http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Notting-Hill.html]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/wait-for-it Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library