We Go Jim

About

We Go Jim, also known as We Go Gym, is a catchphrase coined in March 2022 by LA-based fitness YouTuber Lexx Little, popular among many young fitness enthusiasts and known for promoting fitness as a remedy for personal struggles. The line "We Go Jim" gained viral traction as the year progressed, spawning several uses and variations across social media platforms including TikTok and Instagram where the sound bite was used in various skits.

Origin

On March 15th, 2022, Lexx Little^[1] uploaded a video titled "BENCH PR + HANDSOME PR + TESTOSTERONE PR,"^[2] shouting the aforementioned catchphrase at the 5:15 timestamp while seated in his car wearing a "gorilla mode" tank on a "Rush pill and two scoops of pre-workout" (shown below, left). The video accrued over 113,750 views and 8,900 likes in four months. On March 22nd, the creator uploaded a video titled "We Go Jim"^[3] (shown below, right). As of August 2022, the video has over 172,460 views and 16,000 likes. At this point, there appeared to be some discrepancies in the way Lexx Little's followers transcribed this iconic phrase, with some users using the correct spelling of "gym" in TikTok comments and tweets only to be corrected by other fans with "Jim."

By mid-April, however, the quote "we go Jim" gained heavy traction among the bodybuilding community, especially among younger high school and college-age fitness enthusiasts. This can be accredited to a video uploaded on April 9th titled "Push Day But I'm Extremely Hyper For Some Reason" (seen below, left).^[4] This video contained another viral clip of Lexx Little seated in his car, this time with his girlfriend Erin Maloney.^[5] At the 5:15 timestamp, Lex said, "What she's trying to say is — we go Jim! We go Jim now!" As of August 2022, the video has over 126,040 views and 12,000 likes (seen below, right). This video, alongside the video from March 15th, contains the two most widely used clips of Lexx Little shouting his catchphrase.

Spread

The video clips quickly went viral in fitness circles, with users on TikTok splicing the clip of Lexx Little screaming "we go Jim" with videos of themselves working out set to hardstyle EDM music. On April 9th, 2022, TikToker @kevinbarbosa_ ^[6] uploaded a video in this format titled "WE GO JIM!😈🦍 @Lexx @Erin" with hashtags that included "#lexxlittle" and "#zyzz." This video gained over 142,400 likes and 1.4 million plays in four months. On April 10th, TikToker @cherwin^[7] posted a video titled "WE GO JIM!!! @Lexx" where he spliced the clip of Lexx and his girlfriend, Erin, with videos of himself working out, once more set to hardstyle EDM music. The video gained over 32,300 likes and 300,300 plays in four months.

On April 8th, TikToker @7alredo13"^[8] posted a video flexing his muscles in a school hallway. The video is captioned "Off to class before Jim," and has accrued more than 296,400 likes and 2.7 million views in four months. On April 14th, TikToker @7alfredo13 posted another video titled "WE GO JIM" where he can be seen sitting in a classroom wearing a tank top and flexing his muscles. The text overlay on the video reads "1 class left before Jim." The video gained more than 950,000 likes and 7.2 million views in four months. These videos are also indicative of the vernacular shift from the usage of "gym" and "Jim" amongst Lexx Little fans, as the user can be seen using the correct spelling of "gym" in earlier videos.

The phrase gained traction on Twitter as well, with users posting photos and tweets alongside the catchphrase, sometimes accompanied by variations on the phrase "we go jim" and "jim make pain go away."

On May 1st, TikToker @tommyybrown_^[9] posted a video titled "WE GO JIM OR GO OUT TRYING😈‼️" The video featured stock images of teens working out, overlayed with the text "99% of teens at the gym," followed by a video of the user straining as he does a deadlift, overlayed with the text "Me at Jim attempting to see God" (shown below, left). The video accrued 1.4 million likes and 10.1 million plays in three months. This video, alongside those posted by @7alredo13, is indicative of Lexx Little and his catchphrase's popularity amongst younger high school and college-age fitness enthusiasts (shown below, right).

By June 2022 the line "We Go Jim" had pervaded online fitness circles, with multiple creators making references to it and parodies of the phrase becoming more prevalent in the following weeks. On July 6th, 2022, TikToker @jeake_leonard_10^[13] posted a video comparing "People that go gym" to "People that go JIM," flexing to appear bigger in relation to the latter statement. His video received 14.1 million plays and 1.6 million likes in two months. On June 11th, TikToker Bryce Hall^[12] posted a video titled "Jim= happy place" featuring him lifting weights at the gym with a text overlay that read "Jim is the best therapy." His video received 6.3 million plays and approximately 599,400 likes (shown below, left). On June 8th, TikTok user @jeanvictorm^[14] posted a video where he compares the phrases "I go to the gym because I'm sad" and "I go JIM cuz PAIN," flexing his muscles to look bigger in accompaniment to the latter message (shown below, right). His video gained 5.5 million plays and approximately 681,000 likes in two months. This trend is indicative of the pervasive belief in this community that working out is a proven solution to mental health issues, dating problems and emotional turmoil.

Hardstyle Remixes

The phrase appears repeatedly across bass-boosted hard-style EDM tracks on YouTube and Soundcloud featuring videos of Zyzz and Lexx Little. On April 3rd, 2022, YouTube channel "Jym"^[10] uploaded a video titled "We go Gym – Lexx Little (Glad You Came Yosuf Hardstyle Remix) Motivation," gaining approximately 444,000 views and 8,000 likes in three months (shown below, left). On April 16th, the YouTube channel "Lyck"^[11] posted a video titled "WE GO GYM! x Cool For The Summer Hardstyle Remix (4K) (shown below, right)." The video gained approximately 2 million views and 55,000 likes in three months. Both videos used thumbnails featured a screen-cap from Lexx Little's first known use of the catchphrase in question, as well as video and audio clips of fitness influencers working out. Multiple hard-style remixes of pop songs accompanied by Lexx's catchphrase also appeared on Soundcloud around the same time, gaining up to 1 million plays apiece.

Various Examples

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7117460705024118062

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7107667556739124485

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7085820225131646254

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7100203523035450630

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7097298345080786219

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7122180364688477486

Search Interest

External References