How #isoverparty became the default hashtag format for Twitter cancelations, from celebrities like Doja Cat to companies like Wendy's
- Hashtags following the #[person]isoverparty format have become pervasive on Twitter as they're used as a routine part of cancel culture discourse.
- Recently, celebrities like Doja Cat and companies like Wendy's have gotten the #isoverparty treatment.
- While people use #isoverparty hashtags at times to expose racist, homophobic, or otherwise problematic behavior, the hashtag itself has become a meme as its use has ramped up.
In quarantine, people on Twitter have been throwing party, after party, after party, canceling celebrities and brands for everything from old internet personas to making statements about Taylor Swift's discography. Use of hashtags that follow the #[person]isoverparty seems to have exploded as cancelations have ramped up in quarantine. In just the past month, we've had a #dojacatisoverparty (and a #dojacatisNOToverparty), a #JimmyFallonIsOverParty, a #WendysIsOverParty, a #ChrisEvansIsOverParty, and a #JojiIsOverParty.
Some of those recent cancelations made a lasting impact on internet discourse — the Doja Cat cancelation discussions lasted multiple days online — but others, like an attempted cancelation of Joji on account of his well-known former internet personality Filthy Frank, made little more than a blip before they were swiftly fell off of Twitter users' radar.
By all accounts though, it seems like quarantine and social distancing measures are correlating with an increase in cancelation attempts, the vast majority of which use the #isoverparty hashtag format. While it's currently spiking, the hashtag has older roots dating back to the mid-2010s and a strong association with fancam culture, which sees dancing K-pop idols and edits of celebrities or characters spammed in the replies of viral tweets or in hashtags.
The #isoverparty hashtag format started to gain traction in 2015 and 2016
Know Your Meme reports that the first noted instance of the #isoverparty format was in a tweet from @PerrysNostalgia on Oct. 23, 2015. The tweet, which only includes the #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty hashtag along with several smiling and clapping emoji, only has four retweets and 11 likes.
From there, Know Your Meme reports that #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty was later picked up in 2016 following the release of a video that seemingly showed that Taylor Swift had knowledge of lyrics referencing her in Kanye West's "Famous" prior to the song's release. The lyrics had been the object of a feud between the artists. At the time, #KimExposedTaylorParty (and in some misspellings, #KimExplosedTaylorParty) also began to circulate.
Since then, the hashtag has gained popularity as a cancel culture tag
People online have been using variations on the #isoverparty tag — and complaining about variations on the #isoverparty tag — across the latter half of the decade. As an example, when James Gunn trended on Twitter on July 20, 2018 after Disney temporarily severed ties with the director following the resurfacing of offensive tweets, there was a #JamesGunnIsOverParty (although it doesn't appear to have trended). There have been more than a few #KanyeWestIsOverParty moments in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
As it gained traction, the hashtag has managed to capture the sometimes-gleeful tenor of cancel culture discussions online, which are frequently filled with GIFs, memes, and fancams galore. That's not to dismiss concerns that are brought up during cancelations, many of which — like callouts of Jimmy Fallon doing a Chris Rock impersonation in blackface on SNL in 2000 — are critiques of racist, homophobic, or other problematic behavior.
In many cases, #isoverparty tags carry the vindictive tone of a cancelation itself. Not only are you calling someone out, but you're celebrating the living daylights out of it. On the flip side, the tags are frequently filled with dissenting opinions as well —people arguing against canceling celebrities or dismissing concerns.
#isoverparty hashtags have also been tied to K-pop fan culture in Twitter discourse
To understand why K-pop stans are associated with cancelation hashtags, you have to understand fancams.
Fancams are short videos that people tag on to tweets and can feature a variety of content. While the term was previously mostly attached to videos of K-pop idols performing, the format's integration into general Twitter discourse means that its come to signify essentially any short video or edit.
People complain about the prevalence of fancams in trending hashtags, as stans (and no longer just K-pop ones) fill up tags with videos. #isoverparty tags are typically rife with people touting the people or things that they stan, and people will sometimes post them even without knowing the context of a cancelation.
K-pop stans are known for wielding significant collective power on Twitter, particularly in reference to trending hashtags. Typically, they're characterized by people on Twitter who aren't a part of the stan community on the app as wantonly attempting to cancel people for no reason.
As an example, #JojiIsOverParty trended on May 12 after Joji's (real name George Miller) previous alter-ego, "Filthy Frank," resurfaced despite the fact that it was never a secret. People turned on the Twitter user who reportedly started the cancelation attempt, using the hashtag #jinsolbiisoverparty; some coverage of the event attributed the attempted cancelation to K-pop fans.
The next day, #kpopstansareoverparty trended, with plenty of K-pop stans getting in on the fun as well.
#isoverparty has become a meme in and of itself
While the #isoverparty hashtag format has been around for several years at this point, it's become a meme in its own right. That's reflected in events like people trending #donaldisoverparty on May 29, after Twitter flagged one of the President's tweets threatening Minneapolis protestors as "glorifying violence" and placed a warning on it.
While some trending #isoverparty hashtags hold some heft and force celebrities to address the grievances at hand, it's a far, far stretch to believe that the President would be impacted by the #donaldisoverparty hashtag or that it would necessarily expose people to new information about the President that they didn't already know. It's a bit redundant to see people apply cancel culture language to a President — especially one who has already been impeached.
While the association with K-pop stans — and dancing fancams that lend credence to the "party" characterization — still exists, #isoverparty has become widespread and is now the default format for cancelation hashtags. While #isoverparty hashtags frequently turn into a site of discourse, as was the case with the recent #dojacatisoverparty, they're also fleeting. Shifting public opinions, as shown by conflicting hashtags around that event like #dojacatisNOToverparty, as well as a recent glut of cancelation hashtags, mean that the tags sometimes become the objects of ridicule.
In short, the tag has become a part of the constant churn of internet discourse: it's associated with some of the most online and opinionated stans on Twitter, and serves as a recognizable signifier for the resurfacing of problematic content. While it's clear that many are fed up with #isoverparty campaigns — YouTuber Mista GG once called it "the worst f-cking thing to happened [sic] to Twitter" — the hashtag, and the cancel culture that backgrounds it, seem to be here to stay.
- Read more:
- Everyone is getting canceled in quarantine. This is why we're seeing more stars in hot water than ever before.
- Doja Cat was canceled, and then uncanceled, for what some are calling her 'racist past.' Here's a timeline of the Twitter drama.
- Doja Cat responded to people who tried to quarantine cancel her: 'good luck motherf-cker'
- Trump got the cancel culture treatment when Twitter users trended #DonaldIsOverParty after the platform put a warning label on one of his tweets