Copypasta
what it means
The internet equivalent of a chain letter. A good copypasta is absurd, slightly unhinged, and instantly recognisable to anyone who's seen it before.
A block of text copied and pasted repeatedly across the internet as a joke.
the origin story
The term appeared on 4chan around 2006, from "copy paste" plus the pasta suffix.
It became one of the internet's most durable formats, spawning creepypasta and countless in-jokes. Twitch chat gave it a second life, where long copypastas are spammed by dozens of viewers simultaneously.
in the wild
Someone posted a 400-word rant about a keyboard.
That's a copypasta, it's been around for years.
Chat is posting the same paragraph forty times.
Standard copypasta behaviour.
how to use it
- Identifying recycled text jokes
- Discussing internet formats
- Stream chat and forum contexts
- As spam in communities that don't want it
- Professionally
- Where the text itself is offensive
related terms
receipts
Community feedback
keep scrolling
Glow-Down
The opposite of a glow-up — appearing to have declined rather than improved.
Slept On
Underrated — overlooked despite being genuinely good.
Hot Girl Summer
A season spent being confident, unbothered and out enjoying yourself.
Cheat Code
A trick or advantage that makes something much easier than it should be.