About
“Leaf a Like” is a catchphrase used by the fans of the popular vlogger LeafyIsHere to spam the comment sections of popular video pages on YouTube. Initially coined as part of a photoshopped parody series depicting the video game commentator as a reptile, the in-joke has also spawned a number of other related terms used in the comments section of YouTube, including the Reptilian Army, Reptilian Brotherhood and most notably “Hisss…”, an onomatopoiea of the high-pitched sound commonly associated with reptilian creatures.
Origin
The origin of the reptilian brotherhood joke goes all the way back to August 14th, 2015 where Leafy made a video titled “KIDS THATYOUTUBE 2”
In this video, he discusses conspiracy theorist Youtubers. Throughout the video, he frequently makes jokes about the Illuminati, and he says things that joke around with the thought of these YouTubers being reptiles or reptillians.
This continued to carry on to August 24th, 2015 when LeafyIsHere uploaded a video titled “REPTILIANS” in which he talks about discovering a variety of fan artworks and photoshopped parodies dedicated to him on Twitter. Most notably the ones depicting him as a lizard and other reptilian creatures.
Spread
On YouTube
Between October 12th and 13th, the YouTube comments section was flooded with repetitive use of the Hisss, Reptilian Brotherhood, and Reptilian Army phrase. Most notably used on bigger YouTuber’s videos, sometimes even beating out first[1]. Comments like these were almost always in the Top Comments section, even with minimal likes. Sometimes, the phrase would even turn to a form of harassment, or calling out certain YouTubers for not being as good as LeafyIsHere and saying they should be attacked or “overthrown”[2].
On Twitch
It continued to grow and began to be spammed in numerous Twitch chats. When Streamers on Twitch would stream their chats would be flooded with “HISSSS…” and other forms of LeafyIsHere spam. Some Streamers would go as far as to use Sub-Mode Only in their chats, meaning their subscribers could only chat. This however did not work as they expected because even the subs were in on the joke and would spam. Many Youtubers and Twitch Streamers have complained by tweeting to Leafy, some just poking fun and laughing at the spam, others were genuinely mad and wanting Leafy to control his fan base.
LeafyIsHere’s Response
On October 13th, LeafyIsHere posted a response video to share his initial thoughts on the spam comments (shown below, left). LeafyIsHere also provided his own explanation as to why this happened on the DramaAlert video released October 14th, 2015 (shown below, right).
Alongside on October 14th, LeafyIsHere tweeted a similar message to address the backlash directed at him as a result of the spamming on YouTube; also commenting about how it was starting to act similar to a cult.
Some people are legit really mad at me because of this LOL. I never told anyone to spam even once. Sorry that some of my fans commented hss?
— Leafy (@LeafyIsHere) October 14, 2015When you make a joke about the reptilians, then they start calling you a reptilian. Month later you somehow become the leader of a cult???
— Leafy (@LeafyIsHere) October 14, 2015
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]YouTube – LeafyIsHere’s Channel
[2]YouTube – REPTILIANS
[3]Facebook – Leafy’s Profile Picture
[4]Twitter – LeafyIsHere’s Tweet
[5]Twitter – LeafyIsHere’s Tweet