Porque No Los Dos

Porque No Los Dos (also known as Why Not Both or Why Don’t We Have Both in English) is a Spanish phrase that gained popularity on the internet as a reaction meme.

The meme is used in situations where a decision is to be made between two things, suggesting to consider a third option by picking both of them.

It was a frequently used image macro and reaction GIF format in the early 2010s, often encountered on sites like 9GAG, Reddit and Tumblr.

While today “Porque No Los Dos” is not what it used to be, it is still a staple of popular culture, and it may be encountered in conversations both on- and offline.

porque no los dos?

The origin of the meme is from a commercial, created by Old El Paso, a US company that deals with tortilla and Tex-Mex style food products.

This specific advertisement was produced and aired in Australia, and its focus was on a product that offered both soft and hard-shell tortillas in one package. The commercial starts with people debating which kind is superior, when at the end, a little girl phrases the important question: “Porque no los dos?” – Why Not Both?, to which everyone rejoices and celebrates.

Although it is not known, when the commercial was first aired, it became a topic of conversation online as early as 2009.

Both GIFs and still images were used from the scene to create the well-recognized “Porque No Los Dos” meme format.

By 2010, the “Porque No Los Dos” meme got so popular, that the girl from the commercial got her own fan page on Facebook, dedicated to her, despite her identity being unknown.

One of the earliest image macro meme, depicting the girl, was uploaded to Funny Junk on June 30th, 2011. Following that, the format began spreading to various other sites, notably Reddit, 9GAG as well as 4chan.

In the following years, “Porque No Los Dos” would remain a classic meme, used in conversations and comment battles online, both as a reaction image, as well as a GIF.

Although by the end of the 2010s, it started falling out of favor, most people with internet culture will still recognize it, and it may even be overheard in conversations even today.

• FunnyJunk – Why Cant We Have Both
• Quickmeme – Why not both
• Reddit – /r/Trees: Tacos and Trees, why not both!?