About
“I Swear On Me Mum” is British-Irish variant of the English idiomatic expression “I swear on my mother’s grave," a pledge of telling the truth. On the web, the phrase is often used in discussions and comments as a hostile retort in the character of Internet Tough Guy.
Origin
On May 24th, 2011, Body Building Forums[1] member kidnamedsteve submitted a thread titled “u are 1 ****ing cheeky kunt mate i swear i am goin 2 wreck u i swear on my mums life,” including a threatening copypasta filled with British slang terms in a similar vein to the navy seal copypasta.
“u are 1 ****ing cheeky kunt mate i swear i am goin 2 wreck u i swear on my mums life and i no u are scared lil bitch gettin your mates to send me messages saying dont meet up coz u r sum big bastard with muscles lol ****in sad mate really sad jus shows what a scared lil gay boy u are and whats all this crap ur mates sendin me about sum bodybuildin website that 1 of your faverite places to look at men u lil ****in gay boy fone me if u got da balls cheeky prick see if u can step up lil queer.”
Spread
On November 24th, 2012, a thread was started on the /r9k/ (Robot9001) board on 4chan,[8] in which several users posted various British slang terms including “I swear on me mum.” On March 29th, 2013, Tumblr[5] blog Sshibe submitted a two-pane image macro featuring photographs of the Doge Shiba Inu with the captions “u avin a ggl ther m8 / ill bash ye fookin ead in I sware on me mum” (shown below, left). In the next seven months, the post garnered close to 160,000 notes. On April 10th, Redditor ItsLewis submitted a post titled “How I see most British teenagers” to the /r/funny[2] subreddit, featuring an animated GIF from the 2013 first-person shooter video game Aliens: Colonel Marines with several aggressive British slang captions including “I swear on me mum” (shown below, right). Prior to being archived, the post received more than 9,100 up votes and 400 comments.
On May 23rd, DeviantArtist[6] RoseCrown submitted an illustration titled “I Sware On Me Mum.” On July 14th, YouTuber pancakewafflebacon uploaded a video titled “bash ye fookin ead in I sware on me mum” featuring a morphing photograph of the Doge Shibu Inu (shown below).
On July 27th, the /r/uwotm8 subreddit[7] was launched, which features the BodyBuilding copypasta on the sidebar. On September 1st, the two-pane Doge image macro was posted to the /tg/ (Traditional Games) board on 4chan.[3]
Search Interest
External References
[2]Reddit – how I see most British teenagers
[3]4plebs – /tg/ thread #26954789
[6]DeviantArt – I Sware on me Mum