Muh

About

“Muh” is Internet slang for “my,” the first-person, possessive pronoun in the English language. On 4chan, a series of image macros mimicking entries in the Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms contain variations of the phrasal template“Muh X” accompanied by descriptions which mock political, religious and ethnic groups.

Origin

The exact origin of the term “muh” is unclear. On June 6th, 2003, Urban Dictionary^[4] user wyckid submitted an entry for “muh,” defining it as a synonym for the word “my.”

Spread

On February 20th, 2006, VN Forums^[8] member crusty ol’ negro submitted a thread titled “Muh Dik Iz Big” (“my dick is big”). On February 24th, 2008, an anonymous 4chan BBS^[9] user left the comment “I need muh dee dee arr” (“I need my Dance Dance Revolution”) in a thread about the electronic musician Aphex Twin. On July 12th, 2011, Body Building Forums^[1] member n0homo submitted a thread in which he used the phrase “muh gains” when referring to his muscle mass gained from lifting weights (shown below).

In September that year, an entry for “muh” was created on the online dictionary Internet Slang.^[7] On July 5th, 2012, Redditor ChevyBMX submitted a picture of a sea lion biting a man’s face titled “Give me muh bukket” to /r/funny^[6] (shown below). Before the post was archived, it gathered upwards of 6,700 up votes and 100 comments.

On September 28th, YouTuber EmpyreanAria uploaded a music video titled “Whur muh boats at,” featuring animated cartoon of the character Daenerys Targaryen from the television drama series Game of Thrones (shown below). Within two years, the video accumulated over 320,000 views and 520 comments.

On June 21st, 2013, Redditor youpizzashit submitted a selfie photograph of a woman titled “muh makeup b on point 2day” to the /r/cringepics^[5] subreddit, where it gained more than 3,800 up votes prior to being archived (shown below, left).

Notable Examples

Scholastic Image Macros

A series of image macros mocking various political, religious and ethnic groups are often posted on 4chan’s various image boards and other online discussion forums, which feature the phrasal template“Muh X” accompanied by a definition of the phrase and the logo for the American book publishing company Scholastic (shown below). On August 10th, 2012, a thread was created with an image macro titled “Muh Freedoms” on 4chan’s /sp/^[11] (sports) board, which defined the phrase as an expression indicating an “American’s confusion and lack of understanding” (shown below, left).

Search Interest

External References