But That's None of My Business

About

“But That’s None of My Business” is a sarcastic expression used as a postscript to an insult or disrespectful remark said towards a specific individual or group. The phrase was popularized through an image macro series featuring Kermit the Frog from The Muppets and punchlines poking fun at a wide range of faux-pas and questionable behaviors in everyday social situations.

Origin

As early as January 2014, Instagram users began posting captioned images of Kermit the Frog with the tag “#kermitmemes” (shown below, left).^[4] On June 17th, the earliest known Kermit image macro including the phrase “that’s none of my business” was highlighted by the @kermitbelike^[5] Instagram feed in a post mocking delusional women described as being “ratchet” (shown below, right).

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On June 20th, the @thatsnoneofmybusinesstho Instagram^[3] feed was created, which highlights pictures of Kermit the Frog with “none of my business” captions. In the first four days, the feed gained over 130,000 followers.

On the same day, Twitter users began tweeting jokes using the hashtags #NoneOfMyBusiness and #Kermit, reaching over 19,000 and 11,000 mentions in the first four days respectively according to the Twitter analytics site Topsy.^[3]

On June 22nd, 2014, the single topic blog“Kemit the Snitch” was launched on Tumblr,^[1] which highlights notable examples from the image macro series. The first post featured a photograph of Kermit the Frog drinking a glass of iced tea with a caption mocking men who wear fake Jordan sneakers (shown below).

On the following day, YouTuber Bugatti Beez uploaded a video of Kermit the Frog reading notable “But Thats None Of My Business” examples (shown below). In the first 24 hours the video gained over 100,000 views and 480 comments.