About
“Bruh” is a variation of the slang term “Bro” that is often added as an interjection of feigned shock or disappointment into various Vine videos in which the subject is shown fainting or falling over to the ground.
Origin
On May 1st, 2014, Viner CallHimBzar posted a video of former high school basketball star Tony Farmer momentarily collapsing in court after being sentenced to three years of prison term for robbery, kidnapping and assaulting his girlfriend, accompanied by a dubbed voiceover clip of his friend and fellow Viner Headgraphix saying “Bruh.” In the first five months, the video received over 440,000 plays and 5,600 likes.
Spread
That week, other Viners began posting video clips with the hashtag #BruhMovement, featuring Farmer and other subjects collapsing with the “Bruh” audio clip playing in the background. On May 3rd, YouTuber Cortland Garner uploaded a video titled “The Bruh Movement Compilation,” including notable #BruhMovement Vines (shown below). In the first five months, the video gained more than 460,000 views and 420 comments.
On the following day, Headgraphix collaborated with hip hop artists Lil Homie Twon and Dillybeatz to release a track titled “Bruh” (shown below).
On June 25th, YouTuber Watch Vine uploaded a compilation of Bruh Vine clips (shown below, left), followed by another montage by YouTuber Vine Machine on July 6th (shown below, right). In three months, the videos gained upwards of 950,000 and 615,000 views respectively. On July 24th, the men’s interest blog Brobible[3] published an article about the Vine video fad, which highlighted several notable examples from the series.