Democrats Roasted For ‘Boy Bye’ Wallpaper Tweet

Dustin ChambersGetty Images

A Twitter account associated with the Democratic Party came in for some criticism — and mockery — for a tweet sent over the weekend advertising anti-Trump phone wallpaper with the slogan “boy bye.”

@TheDemocrats, the official account of the Democratic National Committee, sent a tweet Saturday advertising the phone wallpaper, with the idea being that voters would be saying “boy bye” to President Donald Trump in 2020. It also included the phrase “this is a whole mood.”

The tweet was mocked for a couple of reasons — its air of older people trying to use the language of the young, and the idea that it was appropriating language associated with African-Americans. There were also many commenters who identified as Trump detractors but nonetheless asked how the Democrats could possibly be so bad at this.

In all, as of Monday morning the tweet had accumulated a ratio of over 1,800 replies, compared to only 152 retweets.

“I can connect with you with a list of digital media consultants who will, free-of-charge, give you private feedback in order to avoid losing in 2020,” writer Charlotte Clymer tweeted in reply. “Feel free to DM.”

The account of former U.S. Senator and current presidential candidate Mike Gravel — which is known to be run by a duo of young people — replied with a tweet that read “good luck stopping the rise of fascism and white supremacy,” while also asking if the person behind the account was “a GOP op.”

The phrase “Boy Bye” is used in Beyonce’s 2016 song “Sorry.” Urban Dictionary lists several definitions for “Boy Bye,” one of which is “Boy bye means when you don’t want to waste words on someone when they are trying to lie to you, and you just not having it so you boy bye them.” Others describe it as a regional phrase associated with the state of New Jersey.

There was also a 2016 movie called Boy Bye, which starred Shondrella Avery and Veronika Bozeman and was directed by Chris Stokes, per IMDB.

The Democratic National Committee, the organization behind the tweet, came in for a great deal of criticism during the 2016 campaign when Hillary Clinton was defeated by Trump. Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders claimed that the DNC rigged the primaries that year in favor of Clinton, while the committee’s emails were later hacked, leading to the release of caches of embarrassing emails prior to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz resigned as DNC chair on the eve of the convention in 2016, with Tom Perez elected the new chairman following Trump’s election.