By BG

It’s funny how things we casually write on this site can grow to have a life of their own. From “The Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory” to the “Stockton Heybuddy,” tossed-off gags turn into running gags, which turn into official t-shirt names and UrbanDictionary pages. But there’s one that needs to come to an end right now. I think you guys know what I’m talking about.

“You Guys” first appeared in a CagePotato headline back in September 2009, as part of this classic Dan Quinn video post. At that time, it was already an existing meme that I basically stole from Videogum.com. Initially, I thought it would be a one-and-done sort of thing. Then I used it again. And again. Then, Old Dad* began to use it himself. “You Guys” was spiralling out of control.

When Mike and Chad came aboard last year, CagePotato reached a period of “You Guys” hysteria. The meaningless phrase appeared in posts about Cecil Peoples embarrassing himself at King of the Cage, Brittney Palmer moving to the UFC, Randy Couture’s retirement threats, the Nemesis MMA: Global Invasion fiasco, Antonio McKee talking smack, Todd Duffee fighting Alistair Overeem, Matt Hughes disrespecting Chuck Liddell and GSP, Dominick Cruz’s broken hand, Kenny Florian and Kurt Pellegrino’s bromance, Jens Pulver breaking his losing streak, Shane Del Rosario’s attitude about the Strikeforce Heavyweight GP, and Jens Pulver winning again, to name just 12 examples. Sometimes “You Guys” would even show up in the headlines of stories that nobody in the world could possibly give a damn about.

That’s why I’m declaring an end to all further headline usage of “You Guys” in CagePotato.com headlines. The joke (if you could ever really define it as a “joke”) has officially run its course, and needs to be buried forever. We’ll just have to find another phrase to randomly stick into headlines. I don’t know what it’ll be yet, but I promise that you’ll be sick of it by the end of the year.

* Oh yeah, the “Old Dad” thing, in reference to Ben Fowlkes? That’s banned now too.