Jordan Peterson Crying

About

Jordan Peterson Crying refers to multiple image macros and videos used in memes of Canadian psychology professor and speaker Jordan Peterson crying on separate occasions during his own YouTube videos and podcasts. Accompanied by captions or photoshopped video titles, these images are used across platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Reddit, among others. Most memes put his crying into different contexts, alluding to him crying about various topics.

Origin

On December 16th, 2016, Jordan Peterson posted a video to his YouTube channel titled, “A New Years Letter to the World,” wherein, he discussed multiple philosophies that would guide his subscribers into the year 2017. At the 12:40-minute mark, Peterson begins a thought about individualism that draws emotion out of him, causing his eyes to become red as he cries. Over the course of six years, the video’s received roughly 206,400 views (shown below). This clip became the first-known video of Peterson crying to receive attention in memes.

Spread

On March 3rd, 2017, a screenshot of Jordan Peterson crying was used in a thread on 4chan’s /lit/ imageboard, captioned, “Sort yourself out, you’re an emotional mess.” On March 7th, 2017, it was used again in a /lit/ thread. It continued to be used on /lit/ as a reaction image going into the end of 2017.

Roughly two years later, on January 17th, 2018, the YouTube channel Túath posted a video titled, “jordan b peterson crying about individualism,” which featured the minute and a half snippet of Peterson crying from the aforementioned 2016 video. Over the course of four years, it received roughly 435,700 views (shown below).

On January 17th, 2018, Twitter user deportablediz captioned a screenshot in a tweet that received over 620 likes in four years (shown below).

On February 1st, 2018, the aforementioned video was reposted to Reddit’s /r/enoughpetersonspam where it earned over 35 upvotes in four years.

On February 19th, 2018, YouTuber TheFlamecatcher used the clip to make a video meme titled, “Jordan Peterson Remembers the Vietnam War,” earning roughly 2,400 views in four years (shown below, left). On November 27th, 2019, YouTuber A Dik used the clip in a video titled, “okay cuck,” earning roughly 5,600 views in three years (shown below, right).

On June 18th, 2020, an anon on 4chan shared a photoshopped version of Peterson crying to /adv/ that made him into the Brendan Fraser’s Alimony / Just Fuck My Shit Up template (shown below).

By September 2021, more videos had emerged of Jordan Peterson crying. For instance, on September 24th, 2021, Peterson cried at the 11:24-minute mark in a video posted by the verified YouTube channel of The Telegraph, earning roughly 3.1 million views in eight months (shown below, left). On September 27th, 2021, the Twitter account theserfstv posted a screenshot of him crying, captioning it, “oh good,” and earning roughly 8,100 likes in eight months (shown below, right).

Going into 2022, a triptych of Peterson crying emerged as a meme template, exploited on Twitter en masse. For instance, on January 27th, 2022, Twitter user amazingatheist captioned the image, “When you get home with your Taco Bell and realize they forgot your chalupa,” earning over 690 likes (shown below, left). On April 19th, 2022, Tumblr blog normal-horoscopes exploited the September 2021 YouTube thumbnail to show Peterson crying about the movie White Chicks, earning roughly 2,800 notes for the meme in three weeks (shown below, right).