He Does It for Free

About

“He Does It For Free” is an expression used to mock 4chan moderators, also known as “janitors,” who are accused of abusing their power or being overly sensitive. Is it often associated with images of the anthropomorphic cartoon dog John Morris from the cartoon television series Arthur, who is employed as an elementary school janitor on the show.

Origin

The earliest known use of the phrase in reference to 4chan moderators was posted to the site’s /sp/^[1] (sports) board on September 28th, 2013, which mocked site mods for spending their weekends on 4chan “for free.”^[2]

Spread

On January 28th, 2014, YouTuber spee outlaw posted a video featuring testimonial spokesman Gordon Hurd reading a script about the 4chan janitor (shown below). Within the first nine months, the video gained over 110,000 views and 290 comments.

On March 12th, a green text post was submitted to the /sp/^[2] board mocking a moderator for being obese and doing his job “for free.” On May 4th, YouTuber forfree posted several videos directed at /sp/ moderators, including a video titled “Hey there /sp/ mod” featuring a parody of the 2006 rock song “Hey There Delilah” by Plain White T’s (shown below).

Oh you will always be
Doing it for free
Oh you will never be
Compensated monetarily
Mod on /sp/

When threads related to the GamerGate controversy were removed by 4chan moderators en masse in September, the phrase saw a significant resurgence on the site by those complaining about the restrictions, often accompanied by pictures of the janitor character John Morris from the television series Arthur. The phrase also became associated with the microwaveable turnovers brand Hot Pockets, implying that janitors eat unhealthy food or are overweight.^[4]^[5] The first reference to the term comes from a post from the videogames general board on March 17th, 2014.^[3]