My Random Scroll Down The Rabbit Hole
So, this morning I’m just scrolling Instagram like I always do with my coffee. Double-tapping dog videos, that kind of thing. Then bam, this meme pops up in my feed. You know the one: some person does something slightly dramatic, maybe scowling or cracking knuckles, and they slap on the text “And I Took That Personally”. Seen it a million times, right? But honestly, I never actually thought about where it came from. It just… existed.
That thought stuck with me. Felt like a gap in my internet life knowledge. So after finishing my lukewarm coffee, I grabbed my laptop. My mission: figure out this meme’s origin story. No fancy research plan, just fired up Google and typed stuff like “and i took that personally meme where from”. Simple.
First results were useless. Mostly just lists of memes using the format, or people asking me in comments where it started – unhelpful. I tried adding “origin” to my search. Better, but still messy. Found a few articles pointing towards the NBA, which honestly surprised me. Basketball? Really?
Dug deeper. Kept clicking links, skimming articles, getting distracted by 90s sports highlights along the way (Michael Jordan dunk compilations are a trap, people!). Finally, pieces started clicking. The core phrase seemed tied to Michael Jordan. Found references to an old interview, maybe from his documentary “The Last Dance”. Apparently, MJ talked about taking real or imagined slights super personally to fuel his competitiveness. That sounded familiar!
Okay, so the words came from MJ. But the meme? The specific image macro vibe? That felt different. My search shifted. Started looking for that GIF everyone uses. You know the grainy footage? Scrolled through endless meme generator sites feeling like I was in a loop. Then, got it! Found a KnowYourMeme entry finally linking it all.
Turns out the actual visual meme kicked off way later than MJ. It centers on this specific moment:
- A GIF of someone else entirely – some dude named Steve Blake?
- From an NBA game years ago between Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets.
- Blake commits a hard foul on Nuggets player J.R. Smith.
- He gets ejected.
- He walks off with this super intense, almost offended-looking face.
That look is the gold. Someone brilliantly saw Steve Blake’s super serious exit after that foul, remembered MJ’s whole “took it personally” mindset, and mashed them together. The perfect storm! The GIF captured that feeling of being super offended or determined perfectly. Viral magic happened.
Felt like cracking a tiny internet code. Went back and watched the original Blake foul clip on YouTube. Yep, seeing it live, that face makes the meme make total sense. It’s hilarious seeing it used now for literally anything people want to pretend they’re super intense about, from finishing chores to eating pizza. The journey from:
- Michael Jordan’s competitive mindset quote,
- to a random NBA foul years later,
- to an anonymous internet person’s brain making the connection,
- to flooding my IG feed… it’s wild.
Case closed! Feels good to actually know the random trivia living in my brain rent-free now. Coffee break well spent!
