Every 60 Seconds in Africa

Meaning

What does Every 60 Seconds in Africa mean?

Every 60 Seconds in Africa refers to the multitude of disturbing factoids concerning the gruesome occurrences on the continent, however, the phrase became really popular online in the parody of these factoids, which goes as “Every 60 Seconds in Africa, a Minute Passes”.

The humorous quote, that became a popular meme online originates from Big Man Tyrone, who has turned into an iconic character of online pop culture.

Every 60 seconds in Africa…

Origin

What's the origin of Every 60 Seconds in Africa?

The exact origin of the phrase is unknown, it has been around for a long while, along with the parody, which has been used humorously before its first occurrence on the internet.

One early case of “Every 60 Seconds in Africa” appearing online can be linked to the tweet of @raphaelbek, posted on April 25th, 2009.

It has been spreading on infographics and factoids online, however, they also appeared on Demotivational Posters at the turn of the 2010s.

Spread & Usage

How did Every 60 Seconds in Africa spread?

The joke would appear in numerous tweets in the early 2010s, as well as image macros on sites like 9GAG.

On May 25th 2014, YouTube user Big Man Tyrone uploaded a video with the title “Jamal Says ‘Every 60 Seconds In Africa, A Minute Passes’” which achieved a lot of success, with over 20 million views and a million likes as of June 7th, 2021.

The video was turned into an image macro, a reaction meme, while also appearing on GIFs on several social media sites.

Today, the popularity of the joke leaves it a common occurrence both in everyday conversations as well as online discussions and memes from Facebook to Reddit to Instagram and Twitter.

AI
Hi Buddy! I'm the DigitalCultures Lab professor. Is there anything else you want to know? I'll answer immediately 🤓
 

External resources

More interesting stuff