guides
Where Did The Catchphrase 'You Wouldn't Last An Hour In The Asylum Where They Raised Me' Come From? The 'Tortured Poets' Meme Explained
The new Taylor Swift album has polarised music critics and fans, but whether you love it or hate it, The Tortured Poets Department is certainly unavoidable on the internet in the days following its release.
From people debating the ethics of listening to leaks of the album in the days leading up to April 19th, or people making fun of her various lyrical decisions a la "Touch me while your boys play Grand Theft Auto," Taylor Swift's present-day internet monopoly is worth sincere study.
But there's another meme that had people hijacking output from Tortured Poets to share tidbits from their own life; thanks to the lyric You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me, from the song, "Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me." Here's how the lyric turned into a viral trend on Twitter this past week.
Where Does The 'Last An Hour In The Asylum' Line Come From?
The line "You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me" is lifted from the song "Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?" While the song was released with the rest of the album on April 19th, discussions about that particular lyric actually spread online a few days before the official release, thanks to some of the tracks being leaked online just days before.
X user @0bviousagb was one of the people discussing the lyric before the official release of the song, as seen in a post made on April 17th, 2020, where they joked about the "Asylum" in question being Swift's massive childhood home.
However, the first viral post using the lyric was likely a post by X user @leylanocontext, who shared an image of a set from the Ryan Murphy show Glee, gathering over 48,000 likes.
How Did 'You Wouldn't Last An Hour In The Asylum' Become A Meme?
More internet users shared photos of their "asylums," often lifted from childhood haunts both online and offline. For some internet users, like @Tomlinbucks and @xcowboygeniusx, their "asylums" were fan events for the boyband One Direction and the fanfiction site Archive of Our Own.
The "asylums" other internet users were raised in were similar online spaces, with X users @whyrev and @trumanpotb posting a website with a Zack and Cody themed video game and the Tumblr landing page.
What Are Some More Memes About The Taylor Swift Lyric?
For the full history of "You wouldn't last a day in the asylum where they raised me," be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.
