The "Oh My God" meme derives from a popular Vine that later became a viral YouTube video in which a man sings the phrase in a dramatic tone. The short clip inspired imitations and competitions over who could belt the line the best in the late 2010s and later saw a resurgence in the early 2020s on TikTok.
Internet users wield this meme to express either sincere, ironic, or exaggerated shock but know it better as the deleted Vine that many people have attempted to recreate in their own styles or contexts.
The six-second video shows a man looking back at a small child and saying "Hey bro" before the kid looks past him with wide eyes and an open mouth. The man says "what" and turns to view what the child is looking at, then sings "Oh my god" or "ohmagaa" with a horrified expression, waggling his lower jaw to the final extended note.
The "Oh My God" video was originally posted to Vine, that video social media platform that launched in 2013 and shut down in early 2017 because it couldn't handle competition from all the copycat apps. This clip disappeared along with many others when Twitter discontinued the archive in 2019.
Thankfully, someone reposted the footage on YouTube on January 15, 2015, preserving it for future meme usage. The identities of the man and child in the video remain unknown.
Starting around 2018, video social media users—Black men in particular—began to produce their own versions of singing the phrase "oh my god" in increasingly stylistic and extended melodies. These imitations eventually turned into singing battles, with multiple men singing the words back and forth as they tried to outdo each other.
Other YouTubers posted compilations of the original Vine with versions that were sped up or slowed down, put through sonic filters, and other audio distortions.
On October 19, 2022, TikTok user @grimstt reposted the clip as a video comparison to a 2022 recreation of the Vine under music. Hundreds of other users proceeded to use the sound to express shock at impressive or unfortunate incidents.
@grimstt Oh my god 2015 vs 2022 #swag #blue #sun #vscocam #pink #style #tagsforlikes #filters #photo #igaddict #my #filter #instamood #beach #2022 #2015 #meme ♬ original sound - Grim
In the early 2020s, the "oh my god" meme became particularly popular in Indonesia. In this nation, the sound is better known as "ohmagaa," representing what the phrase sounds like when sung in the original clip.
On March 10, 2022, viral Indonesian YouTuber and video streamer Windah Basudara ("Brando") uploaded a lengthy entry to his YouTube account dedicated to the meme. For over seven minutes, Brando films himself getting up, doing morning stretches and exercises, getting dressed, brushing his teeth, settling himself, and taking a few breaths before he finally sings the line into his mic.
He then gets up and walks off-screen without another word.
The "Oh My God" meme is not to be confused with the "Oh My God Wow" meme, which refers to a quote that comes from the 2012 Ghanaian film Azonto Ghost. In the movie, a character is sitting on the couch with a woman and delivers this line with an exaggerated smile and in a high-pitched voice.
A Vine user uploaded a clip of this scene with the line on October 22, 2016. It quickly spread to Twitter, where people used it as a "me when" meme to joke about moments when you have to act more excited than you really are.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.
The post The melodic history of the ‘Oh My God’ meme appeared first on The Daily Dot.
