Bro Accidentally Emoted / Bro Started Emoting
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About
Bro Accidentally Emoted, also known as Bro Started Emoting and other similar names, is a catchphrase used in various memes in which weird or goofy moves and dances, especially when performed out of place, get labeled as "emoting" in real life, with the act compared to accidentally hitting an emote button in a video game.
Origin
Prior to 2021, memes about accidentally hitting an emote button in real life had been made outside of a defined trend. For example, on March 5th, 2019, Redditor[1] gmarkerbo posted an image caption meme that gained over 9,900 upvotes in the /r/Overwatch subreddit in three years (shown below).
Prior to November 19th, 2021, an unknown user posted a clip of a football player reacting to successfully blocking a shot by doing a backflip, with the video paired with the Nokia notification sound and captioned, "bro accidentally hit the button for emotes." On November 19th, iFunny[2] account videospostsmemer69 reuploaded the meme, with the post gaining over 36,500 smiles in one year (shown below).
In the following months, the video was widely circulated online. For example, on March 28th, 2021, TikToker[3] aks.op reposted it, with the clip gaining over 1.6 million likes on the app in eight months.
Spread
Starting in March 2022, more memes using the caption to describe peculiar moves have gone viral. For example, on March 8th, 2022, TikToker[4] yurr.danny posted a clip that received over 7.1 million views and 1.6 million likes in eight months (shown below, left). On May 19th, TikToker[5] @tim_the_gig posted a now-deleted video that went viral, being shared on Twitter, Facebook and other sites in the following weeks (duet shown below, right).
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7072927452435238190
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7099556712784383275
"Bro emoted," "Bro accidentally hit the emote button" and similar captions remained prevalent on TikTok and YouTube through 2022, primarily being used to caption videos of people doing goofy dances and unusual moves, especially when appearing to be out of place.
Various Examples
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7119914274750860549
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7108543937631128878
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7151465715789335813
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7124377637346233643
Search Interest
External References
[1] Reddit – When u accidentally emote during a team fight
[2] iFunny – videospostsmemer69
[4] TikTok – @yurr.danny
[5] TikTok – @tim_the_gig
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