Neil deGrasse Tyson smiling over a galaxy background with the caption 'We did it Reddit!'

We Did It Reddit!

2013catchphraseclassic

Published October 5, 2026

"We Did It Reddit!" is a sarcastic catchphrase Redditors use to mock-claim credit for current events they had nothing to do with. The expression blew up in April 2013 after the site's bungled Boston Marathon bomber hunt wrongly accused missing student Sunil Tripathi, turning the phrase into a running joke about Reddit's own worst instincts.

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Overview

"We Did It Reddit!" works as a one-line self-roast. Users post an unrelated news story, a court ruling, a legislative vote, a celebrity update, with the title phrased as if Reddit's upvotes personally delivered the result1. The joke flips between two targets: Redditor self-importance and the specific blunder that birthed the format2.

The snowclone "we did it, X" also traveled off-site. 4chan and Tumblr users picked up the construction with their own community name slotted in3. Common Reddit applications included the White House's veto threat against the CISPA bill, Colorado's cannabis legalization vote, and various same-sex marriage rulings, all treated as triumphs Reddit single-handedly engineered3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reddit
Date
2013

Scattered uses of the phrase date to 2012, but the origin point is unknown2. Widespread adoption came after the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, when a Reddit crowdsourced manhunt on /r/findbostonbombers landed on Sunil Tripathi, an American college student who had gone missing months earlier and had no connection to the attack4. As the misidentification unraveled, users began applying "We Did It Reddit!" sarcastically to pin the fallout on the community itself.

The wording may trace back to Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, where host Stephen Colbert routinely flashed a "We Did It" banner on screen3. Reddit's version swapped the sincerity for self-mockery.

How It Spread

Two dedicated subreddits appeared within a week of the Tripathi incident. /r/wediditreddit launched on April 20, 2013, and /r/WE_DID_IT_REDDIT/ followed on April 21, both filling with news stories captioned to suggest Reddit influenced the outcome5. The format gave users a durable way to joke about the manhunt without naming it directly.

The snowclone jumped platforms as the ironic use picked up. 4chan threads and Tumblr posts adopted "we did it, X" variants, folding the Reddit joke into cross-site shorthand for unearned credit3. On Reddit itself, the phrase got attached to the CISPA veto, Colorado's weed vote, and same-sex marriage decisions, each framed as a Reddit victory the site had not delivered2.

The Tripathi case gave the catchphrase its lasting weight. It became common shorthand for criticizing online vigilante investigations and the self-congratulation that followed them6.

Timeline

2012

Scattered early uses of the phrase appear on Reddit, though no single origin post is documented.

2013-04-15

Two bombs detonate at the Boston Marathon finish line, kicking off Reddit's /r/findbostonbombers crowdsourced manhunt.

2013-04-19

The misidentification of missing student Sunil Tripathi collapses as the actual suspects are named by law enforcement.

2013-04-20

/r/wediditreddit is created as an ironic home for the catchphrase.

2013-04-21

/r/WE_DID_IT_REDDIT/ follows a day later, mirroring the format with uppercase styling.

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How to Use This Meme

Typical usage: find a news headline about a legal, political, or cultural outcome that Reddit had no measurable impact on, then post it with the title "we did it, reddit!" or a close variant5. The snowclone "we did it, X" works the same way for other communities, swapping in 4chan, Tumblr, or any group taking undeserved credit3.

Frequently Asked Questions