Wow. I Didn't Know That. You're Telling Me Now for the First Time

About

Wow. I Didn't Know That. You're Telling Me Now for the First Time refers to Donald Trump's reaction to the news of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death in late 2020. Online, an image of Trump holding a finger to his ear paired with a copypasta of his words has been used as a meme format, typically used to express a reaction of fake surprise.

Origin

On September 18th, 2020, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. On that day, former United States President Donald Trump learned about Ginsburg's death from a reporter who asked him to comment on it, responding, "Wow. I did not know that. You're telling me now for the first time." Following the moment, CSPAN posted a 50-second clip of Trump commenting on GInsburg's death to Twitter,^[1] where it received over 8.2 million views in two years (shown below).

On July 30th, 2021, an unknown Twitter^[2] user posted the earliest known meme based on the clip, altering Trump's response into a joke about fakecels and using two images from the video, in one of which Trump holds a finger to his ear (shown below). A screenshot of the tweet has since been used as a reaction on Twitter.

Spread

The meme format gradually rose to prominence through the first half of 2022. For example, on January 17th, 2022, Twitter^[3] user @daveloach2 posted a The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion meme based on it that gained over 410 retweets and 3,500 likes in one year (shown below, left). On January 26th, iFunny^[4] user DiagnosedCancerPatient posted a video caption meme that received over 1,600 smiles on the app in one year (shown below, right).

On June 1st, 2022, Twitter^[5] user @derpo377 posted a Star Wars version of the meme that gained over 5,400 retweets and 67,100 likes in nine months (shown below, left). On August 27th, Twitter^[6] user @cristian_romas posted an I'm Coming to Kill You in Real Life meme that gained over 720 retweets and 8,100 likes prior to being removed (shown below, right).

Various Examples

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Search Interest

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