I Hurt Myself Today

I hurt myself today refers to the iconic first lines of the famous Nine Inch Nails song Hurt, that was later covered by Johnny Cash, shortly prior to his passing.

The cover gained a lot more popularity and screenshots of the music video were also used online as a reaction image macro.

via GIPHY

Hurt was written by Trent Reznor and was featured as the final song in the 1994 album of the Nine Inch Nails, titled The Downward Spiral.

While the song gained a lot of acclaim both from critics and listeners, Trent Reznor later said “the song isn’t mine anymore”, following the cover of Johnny Cash, released in 2002, not long before the musician’s death.

In the following years, the iconic line “I hurt myself today” was featured in countless films, series and televisions shows, due to its expressive nature.

The line “I hurt myself today” sung with the voice of the late Johnny Cash became viral in the late 2010’s, when starting in November 2016, parodies emerged online, featuring the song, following a disaster, similar to Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence.

Reaction image macros of the meme also stared appearing on Reddit’s countless meme-based subs, including r/memes and r/MemeEconomy, leading to a trend of “I hurt myself today” memes in 2018.

• Americansongwriter.com – Behind the Meaning of “Hurt,” by Nine Inch Nails, Johnny Cash
• Radiox.co.uk – How covering Hurt gave Johnny Cash’s career a new lease of life
• Wikipedia.org – Hurt (Nine Inch Nails song)