About
The Undertaker Threw Mankind Off Hell in a Cell is a copypasta often seen on Reddit and Facebook, which is typically altered to fit the context of the post it is responding to. Redditor shittymorph is often credited with popularizing the message within various subreddits.
Origin
The exact origin of the copypasta is unknown. While many cite Redditor shittymorph with creating the copypasta, the earliest examples were found in a post on the NFL Memes Facebook page published on January 8th, 2017.[7]
Spread
On January 19th, 2017, Redditor shittymorph replied to a post on /r/pics[6] highlighting a portrait of Salt Bae made out of salt, urging readers:
“don’t let this man distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table.”
On February 6th, 2017, Redditor ScienceLivesInsideMe replied to a photograph of a dog on the /r/aww[1] subreddit with Scooby Doo-themed variation of the copypasta. In response, Redditor shittymorph replied explaining that the message was something he had been posting for weeks:
It is something I have been posting for a few weeks – I usually adjust the statement to whatever the post is related to. I have been getting a laugh out of doing it and other people have seemed to enjoy it too – Anyway – since this is my post and I have been going around making variations of this comment people are now showing up here on my post with their own variations of the comment. I hope that clarifies things…. but please do not let this extensive clarification distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table."[2]
The following day, Redditor pujolsrox11 submitted a post asking about the copypasta meme to /r/OutOfTheLoop.[4]
On Februrary 11th, shittymorph replied with a “Cash Me Ousside” variation of the copypasta in response to a post highlighting her second appearance on Dr. Phil submitted to /r/videos.[3] On February 15th, Redditor MadDrewOB submitted video of The Undertaker throwing Mankind off the top of the Hell in a Cell from WWE to /r/videos[5] (shown below).
On February 12th, a subreddit dedicated to the copypasta was created, gaining over 1,500 subscribers in less than two months.[8] On March 28th, shittymorph posted on r/shittymorph a gif version of a man reacting to the copypasta, originally created by reddit user ohyouresilly, gaining over 490 points in less than two days.[10] The next day, an edited version of the gif was uploaded to Imgur, gaining over 2.3 million views in less than 24 hours (shown below).[9]
Search Interest
External References
[1]Reddit – Scooby Doo Version
[2]Reddit – shittymorph explanation
[3]Reddit – Cash me ousside how bot dat
[4]Reddit – whats the whole 1998 undertake meme
[5]Reddit – The Undertaker throws Manking off Hell In a Cell
[6]Reddit – Dont let this man distract you from the fact
[8]Reddit – r/shittymorph
[9]Imgur – Browsing the comments on reddit when suddenly…
[10]r/shittymorph – Back in nineteen ninety eight