About
Listen here you little shit, sometimes seen as its shorthand equivalent Listen here U lil shit, is a slang used as a remark towards someone, either to correct or to scold them for what they said. Its usage in comments was further coupled with various pictures featuring angry-looking people raising or pointing the finger. The meme gained the most of its popularity online when it involved a peculiar snapshot of actor Matt Smith as The Doctor from the Dr Who franchise.
Origin
The origin of the phrase on internet is unknown.
One of its earliest mentions can be found in a November 6th 2011 blog article from Ship In The Night[1] dealing with the economical issues faced by Greece. One of the photographs shows German chancellor Angela Merkel with, underneath, a fabricated quote that reads:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel moments before she flipped “das birdie” at the Greek citizenry. "Listen here you little shit of a country […].
(bold added for emphasis)
Another example can be found on the NeoGAF forum in a 2012 post by user Satch, reacting to the comment of another user[2].
The catchphrase was first coupled with a picture on website SomeEcards on december 14th 2012[3] (shown below).
Spread
[wip]
Beginning in the late 2012, various examples of the catchphrase could be found on Deviant Art[4].
It also found itself on imgur in 2014, as titles for animated gifs with animals in them. One showed an elephant scolding an ostrich[5], which gained over 430 000 views and 5 100 upvotes in the following 7 months. The one featured a scene between two gorillas[6], which gained over 810 000 views and 4 800 upvotes in the following 11 months.
Various Examples
Dr. Who Variation
In April 2013, a thread was made in the r/pics sub-reddit about the Goverment Shutdown event. On April 8th, redditor minipump posted a less than flattering screenshot from the Dr Who’s 11th season featuring The Doctor (played by Matt Smith) making a face with his eyes half closed and his finger raised, couple with the comment “LISTENHEREYOULITTLESHIT”[7] (shown below, left). That same year, another user made a macro of the image, featuring the shorthand phrase “Listen here U lil shit” (shown below, right).
They led to a slew of parodies involving that character.
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External References
[1]Ship in the Night – Greece Rejects Austerity – Plans Bake Sale
[2]NeoGAF – COMICS |OT| – November is SPANKSGIVING! 30 Days of Appreciating Funnybooks!
[3]SomeEcards – Granny: Listen here you little shit disturber, if you don’t have anything nice to say,then I oughta knock some sense into that little noggin of yours!#
[4]Deviant Art – Results for Listen Here You Little
[5]Imgur – Now listen here you little shit
[6]Imgur – Listen here you little shit!
[7]Reddit – Please Open The Government