OP is a Faggot

About

"OP is a Faggot" is an insult directed towards the original poster (OP) of a thread on image boards or discussion forums, which can be also presented in the form of image macros and animated GIFs.

Origin

The abbreviation OP for “original poster” has been used since the mid 1990s in newsgroup discussions on Usenet. On December 31st, 2003, Urban Dictionary^[4] user Joe submitted the first entry for the term “OP,” defining it as a common abbreviation used on message boards and forums. The earliest archived instance of the phrase “OP is a faggot” was posted on the /b/ (random) board via 4chan^[5] on May 29th, 2007 (shown below).

Gender Policing

While words like "faggot" and "fag" are generally considered hateful slurs against homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered people, its usage on 4chan is more comparable to how young boys call each other the name as a way of gender policing, rather than hate speech, as observed by American ethnographer C.J. Pascoe in his 2007 book Dude, You're a Fag.^[11]

Spread

While initially limited to 4chan, the phrase spread to the Something Awful Forums^[6] on November 11th, 2008, when member Myself posted a thread titled “[RSF:The O.P.] I’m a gay faggot and I suck dicks everyday!”, which asked other members to reply to the thread declaring “how gay you are.” On February 28th, 2009, Urban Dictionary user mongo4chan submitted an entry for the word “OPFAG,” which referenced its use on the 4chan image board. On May 29th, 2010, YouTuber jesse2282 uploaded a Downfall parody video in which Hitler reacts to an OP being called a “faggot” (shown below, left). On October 22nd, 2011, YouTuber LSDlucid uploaded a similar Downfall parody titled “Hitler reacts to OP being a fag on 4chan” (shown below, right).

On March 4th, 2012, Redditor KleurenPrinter submitted a post titled “When God created OP” to the /r/4chan^[8]subreddit, featuring a comic of a bearded man accidentally spilling too much rainbow into a bowl labeled "OP." On May 28th, FunnyJunk^[7] user stinkytech submitted an edited 60s Spider-Man comic showing a “book about faggots” opened to a page with the abbreviation “OP” (shown below, right). Within eight months, the post received over 103,000 views, 4000 up votes and 420 comments.

Related Entries

Statement From President Gay refers to a December 2023 tweet relaying a statement from Claudine Gay, the former President of Harvard University, made during a Congressional hearing. The post has subsequently been cropped to "Statement from President Gay" and used as a reaction image meme on social media.

Notable Examples

Additional examples can be found on FunnyJunk^[10] and Tumblr^[9] under the tag "#op is a faggot."

Search Interest

External References