Do It Faggot

About

The phrase, Do It Faggot (often in all-caps), is a canned response originating among 4chan users with the intent to strongly suggest, provoke a response, show doubt toward dubious claims, or respond to suicide threats.

It should be noted that on 4chan, the word "faggot" is often applied indiscriminately to anyone and everyone. All users are identified as some kind of "fag." For instance, people from Britain are called britfags, people new to 4chan are newfags, people who have been on the site for years are called oldfags, and so on. For more information on the word "fag" as a suffix, see KYMdb – Fag (Suffix).

Usage

The phrase, "Do It Faggot," is usually found in threads where people, often trolls, are asking for help with decisions. However, it is also a common response toward a variety of other situations:

Examples

Suggestion

User 1: Should I hack this person's facebook?
User 2: Do it faggot.

Trolling

User 1: what does typing sudo rm -rf /* do?
User 2: do it fgt

Dubious Claim

User 1: Stop it or you'll be banned
User 2: Do it faggot

Suicide Threat

User 1: i think i should kill myself, what do you think /b/?
User 2: DO IT FAGGOT!

Image Macro

"Do It Faggot" pictures consist of a person or character with an impossibly wide grin, wide-open eyes, and teeth bared:

One of the most popular variations, featuring The Beast from Disney's adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast," is cited by Encyclopedia Dramatica [NSFW link] as the origin of the "Do It Faggot" image series.

As a result, cartoon and movie stills are a frequent source of images in combination with this catchphrase.

Spread Outside of 4chan

• GunZFactor (27 Aug 2007)
• Quake3World (22 Aug 2008)
• EBN Forums (8 Feb 2009)
• Snafu Comics (1 Sep 2009)
• Casual Discourse (13 Feb 2010)
• Sythe (7 March 2010)
• BlizzForums (25 July 2010)

Pflugerville High School Terrorist Threat

Although Do it faggot had been used as an image macro as early as June 2007, [NSFW link] the phrase got its first major usage spike in a September 11, 2007 bomb threat posted on 4chan's /b/ board directed at Pflugerville High School in Pflugerville, Texas. A teenage student whose name was withheld because of his age posted on /b/ detailing his operation. [NSFW link].

Hello, /b/.

On September 11, 2007, at 9:11 A.M. Central time, two pipe bombs will be remote-detonated at Pflugerville High School.

Promptly after the blast, I, along with two ther Anonymous, will charge the building, armed with a Bushmaster AR-15, IMI Galil AR, a vintage, government-issue M1 .30 Carbine, and a Benelli M4 semi auto shotgun.

So, what are YOUR plans, /b/?

One of the most common responses by numerous anonymous users was "Do It Faggot," and the phrase exploded in popularity as a result. The teenager would eventually be put under arrest for making the threat after the FBI received an anonymous tip.

4chan Threads:

[All links NSFW]

• The Original Threat
• Follow-up
• Post-Arrest
• The Aftermath

In similar fashion two months later, another school threat would be posted on /b/, this time targeted towards a high school in Jokela, Finland. Anonymous users would once again motivate the act by repeatedly proclaiming "Do It Faggot."

Suicide Threats

Since its sudden increase in popularity in 2007, "Do It Faggot" has seen an upsurge as a reply toward suicide threats. Although suicide threats are a common symptom of people about to attempt suicide, the perception that suicidal behavior is often attention-seeking makes it unclear whether people posting comments encouraging suicide are as uncaring as they appear to be. Nevertheless, it is seen as a cruel and callous response toward people suffering from suicidal thoughts.

One of the most widely-publicized internet suicide incidents was that of 19-year-old Abraham Biggs, whose suicide was witnessed by approximately 1500 people over webcam in November of 2008. "Do it faggot" appeared among other comments encouraging him to commit suicide.

On August 20, 2010, Robert Duncan, under the username Diefex, asked Reddit why he shouldn't commit suicide. Comments (including "Do It Faggot") egging him on were posted along with more helpful comments attempting to persuade him to keep on living. Duncan committed suicide two hours later.

Insight

The nature of 4chan's threads prevents us from seeing precisely where the phrase originated, but the first major spike correlates with the Pflugerville High School incident. Search traffic doubles in the time from August to September 2007.