What do war criminal Henry Kissinger, expelled Congress member George Santos, and the start of the Christmas season have in common? Well, according to some of your most online acquaintances, each is a prime occasion to celebrate by sending a message filled to the brim with horny, raunchy, and news-themed emoji rants. Introducing horny copypasta— and if this is the first time you’re learning about it, I’m so sorry in advance.
Copypasta is a popular internet meme, where big chunks of text are posted over and over until they become viral — think emoji-laden chain letters shared via text. Horny copypasta takes the trend a step further, using sexual innuendos to memorialize major world or news events. While they’re purposefully made NSFW, the texts are intended to be copied wholesale and then sent to as many friends as possible. (Think replacing a portion of Christopher Columbus with the peach emoji.) While horny copypasta usually thrives during holidays, a swath of recent deaths and events have sent copypasta writers into overdrive. But several writers tell Rolling Stone that the meme format isn’t just a good laugh— it’s a way for people to use humor to address a world that has become increasingly dystopian.
Dravved, 29, is one of the moderators of the popular subreddit r/emojipasta, which compiles new creations alongside some of the most famous copypasta threads. First created in 2015, the subreddit now has 176,000 members, as well as daily requests for experts on specific events like Diwali or Spotify Wrapped. Dravved tells Rolling Stone that a lot of the demand for copypasta comes from a millennial sense of nostalgia.
“In recent years, as the internet has become a shell of what it used to be, where it is no longer this free realm of information and connection but rather a hyper-sterilized wasteland of ads and sensationalized content, that we yearn for something novel and familiar,” Dravved says. “That’s where the exaggerated degeneracy of the copypasta comes in. You take something either mundane — like a holiday or tragic, like a death — and you turn [it] into this weird amalgamation of what you remember the internet being like, when you had to sneak downstairs to the family computer to sign on to AIM.”
Cameron, a 33-year-old copypasta fan, tells Rolling Stone that he created his popular thread about George Santos hours before the 35-year-old was officially expelled from Congress. His thread included the phrase “Ethics CUMittee,” which references Santos’ alleged use of campaign funds to pay for Botox and OnlyFans subscriptions, and at least nine artfully placed water droplet emojis.
While Cameron is an avid fan of horny copypasta, his Santos-inspired script was the first one he had ever actually written — which is why it took him a bit to find words that came from the heart.
“Someone jokingly asked me if I had one ready to go for George Santos’ expulsion,” he says. “I ended up spending like four hours crafting that, figuring out how to refine the language, and make different references to politics or the ridiculous things that he’s done, or various areas of gay culture. It’s a lot harder than it seems.”
While Santos’ copypasta was rightfully celebrated on both Reddit and X, sometimes the most popular copypasta is written in advance and then banked for its moment to shine. In fact, the viral copypasta celebrating the death of Kissinger was written almost five years ago, and was so ready to be sent that many X users said they learned of Kissinger’s death directly from their emoji-laden text messages. The author, who asked to be referred to by their X username giltcomplex, tells Rolling Stone even with the wait, they’re proud of the final product. “I’m glad it lived up to the years of, frankly, impatient waiting, and was honored to hear that so many people had hoped this would be how they heard the news,” they say.
Both Cameron and Dravved add that horny copypasta keeps many of the same etiquette rules of old email chains, which means even when translated to text message rather than digital mail, the messages never require a prior warning. And because they’re a humorous way to talk about national news events, Cameron says they’re also a perfect way to connect with old friends.
“There are definitely people in my life that I almost only have emoji pasta touchpoints with anymore, folks that I was friends with years ago and their lives have taken them different places,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I enjoy having a reason to reach out to folks that I might not otherwise talk to on a day-to-day basis.”
One writer, who asked not to be identified in order to protect their budding emoji text chain empire, acknowledges that the past two weeks have been full of news items perfect for more sexy emoji rants. But they tell Rolling Stone, the fear of burnout won’t prevent them from staying “the juiciest source for [everyone’s] horny copypasta desires,” mostly because shitposting has no office hours.
“For the burnout… I don’t feel like it’s impacted me too much, because I just pick and choose whatever seems funniest to me,” they say. “My favorite is writing [requests] for more obscure holidays or events. It’s just funnier to see these things talked about so lewdly. Fuck whoever the person was that asked for a ‘safe for work’ one, though.”
Dravved also notes that while copypasta surrounding death might seem gauche, they’re a common way for people on the internet to deal with an excess of seemingly massive world events.
“It’s a form of coping for a lot of people. Focusing on making the stupidest, most depraved copypasta you can come up with helps distract you for a bit, and maybe laugh instead of focusing on how many lives will be ruined,” he says. “The more people who are able to just turn off their brain and post some horn garbage, the better. The world sucks. It helps to know that there’s always people willing to laugh at it.”
