# We Did It Reddit!
"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.
## Origin
Scattered uses of the phrase date to 2012, but the origin point is unknown[2]. 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 attack[4]. 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 screen[3]. Reddit's version swapped the sincerity for self-mockery.
- **Platform:** Reddit
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2013
## 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 result[1]. The joke flips between two targets: Redditor self-importance and the specific blunder that birthed the format[2].
The snowclone "we did it, X" also traveled off-site. 4chan and Tumblr users picked up the construction with their own community name slotted in[3]. 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 engineered[3].
## How to Use
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 variant[5]. The snowclone "we did it, X" works the same way for other communities, swapping in 4chan, Tumblr, or any group taking undeserved credit[3].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is We Did It Reddit!?
It is a sarcastic Reddit catchphrase posted alongside news stories to mock-claim credit for outcomes Reddit had nothing to do with[1].
### Where did We Did It Reddit! come from?
The phrase spread in April 2013 after Reddit users running an amateur manhunt wrongly identified Sunil Tripathi as a Boston Marathon bomber[4].
### What does We Did It Reddit! mean?
It is ironic self-congratulation, aimed at Redditors who overstate their role in current events and at the Tripathi incident specifically[2].
### How do you use We Did It Reddit!?
Post a news story about an unrelated win with the title "we did it, reddit!" so the implication of credit reads as a joke[5].
### Is We Did It Reddit! still popular?
It became a classic Reddit joke tied to the Boston bombing fallout, with dedicated subreddits documenting its sarcastic use[6].
## References
1. [https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/32h3rv/can_someone_explain_we_did_it_reddit/]()
2. [https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/1ye6yy/what_is_the_origin_of_we_did_it_reddit/]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-did-it-reddit]()
4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/2aj3h0/what_happened_with_the_boston_bomber_that_reddit/]()
5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/WE_DID_IT_REDDIT/]()
6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/34oirt/what_was_the_we_did_it_reddit_incident_and_who/]()
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