Stepbro / Stepbrother

About

Stepbro, also known as Stepbrother, refers to a series of memes that revolve around stepsiblings being sexually attracted to one another -- a common trope in TV, movies and, especially, pornography. Typically, these memes appear in the form of various reaction images, object labeling or image macros, but can also be found in parodies or other forms of media. Most of these poke fun at the trope and the ridiculous nature of the concept, particularly in porn, or reference the unrealistic situations of such content. Some of the most common quotes associated with these memes are "Help me stepbro, I'm stuck" and "Whatcha doin' stepbro?"

Origin

Found in all kinds of media, from TV shows to books and anime to movies, the “Flirty Stepsiblings” trope has been prevalent in entertainment for a number of years. On the website TV Tropes,^[1] which documents tropes in various mediums, the stepsiblings trope is described as:

So you've got two unrelated teenagers whose parents have recently gotten hitched. Said teenagers happen to have compatible sexual/romantic orientations. Whether they find it squicky or not, hormones are going to fly. Usually this is seen in the undertones of their behavior in a show, and it almost always happens when two people become step-siblings in adolescence. Sometimes though, this is unintentional on the part of the writers and attempts to make new step-siblings act like a long-time brother and sister just come off as flirty.

Though the trope is found in tamer media, most memes revolved around the theme stem from pornography. In porn, stepsisters often wind up in ridiculous situations leaving them stuck in a strange position or unrealistically seek sexual interaction with their stepbrother seemingly out of the blue. Stepsiblings are not the only type of characters portrayed, as stepparents are almost equally widespread, though not as common in meme culture. Because such elements are so prevalent in porn, and due to their popularity, many online have turned to memes to make fun of this trope.

Spread

On the Instagram^[2] account offended_dishwasher, one such example of a meme referencing this theme was uploaded on May 13th, 2019. The meme (seen below) received nearly 2,500 likes.

Reddit is also a particularly frequent source of such memes. Redditor^[2] saioskeshin7 posted a variant on September 9th, 2019, to the r/dankmemes sub, receiving over 43,000 upvotes and 138 comments (shown below).

On November 7th, 2019, YouTuber^[3] Ryan The Leader created a parody video poking fun of the porn trope called, “What it's like being a step-brother in 2019.” Since being uploaded, the video (seen below) has been viewed more than 3.1 million times, liked over 127,000 times and commented on 4,000 times.

Many Twitter^[4] users can also be seen creating similar parodies, with one coming from user solsensei on November 14th, 2019. This video (shown below) has been viewed almost 40,000 times and liked another 1,800 times.

I'm stuck stepbro 🌚 pic.twitter.com/Rxi1yIvBEb

— solsensei (@solsensei) November 14, 2019

Also frequently seen in anime, several meme creators have also made examples referencing the prevalence of the trope in this medium. Redditor^[5] laserpimp posted one such meme to the r/Animemes subreddit on February 1st, 2020, where it received over 5,100 upvotes and 60 comments.

Related Memes

What Are You Doing Step Bro?

What Are You Doing Step Bro? is a quote from a pornographic film which was later parodied in a series of TikTok videos. The line is taken from the intro for the "Family Strokes" studio, which makes pornographic films based on a step-sibling sexual fetish. The line was parodied before hitting TikTok.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References