About
“We Did It Reddit!” is an ironic statement used when a website or a online community accomplishes something or takes credit for things they did nothing to help.
Origin
Although the origin of the phrase is unknown and some of its uses are dated back to 2012, it increased its populariaty after a campaign by reddit to find the author of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings, framing the college student Sunil Tripathi as the author. Soon, the phrase “we did it, reddit” started being used as victory for finding the author, but the incriminated student wasn’t the author, making the investigation useless.[1][2][3][4] Since the, the catchphrase has been mainly used ironically.
Percursor
It’s believed that a percursor of the catchphrase could be found on The Colbert Report, hosted by the American writer and actor Stephen Colbert. In the show, Colbert often uses a banner with the phrase “We Did It”.
Spread
The catchphrase inspired the creation of various subreddits, /r/wediditreddit,[5] created on April 20th, 2013 and with 70 subscribers, and /r/WE_DID_IT_REDDIT/,[5] created arround the same date and with 61 subscribers, where the posts are unrelated news or images, implying reddit has helped on them. The catchphrase is also used on other websites, like 4chan[7] or Tumblr,[8] is similar vein to reddit’s use of it.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]/r/OutOfTheLoop – Can someone explain: We did it reddit?
[2]/r/OutOfTheLoop – What is the origin of ‘WE DID IT REDDIT!’
[3]/r/OutOfTheLoop – What was the ‘we did it reddit’ incident and who died?
[4]/r/OutOfTheLoop – What happened with the ‘Boston Bomber’ that Reddit incriminated?
[5]Reddit – /r/WE_DID_IT_REDDIT/
[6]Reddit – /r/wediditreddit
[7]Archive.moe – Search for we did it reddit
[8]Tumblr – Search for we did it reddit