The Navy Seal copypasta, aka the Marine copypasta, is a long threatening rant by someone claiming to have extensive military experience. The author purports to be a top member of the Navy Seals, makes multiple death threats, and lists all the ways they know how to kill people, apparently in response to a slight.
Several folks have come forward claiming to be the creator of this copypasta, but its exact origins remain unclear. Many of those familiar with the screen assume that it was meant to be facetious, though it’s difficult to know for sure.
What is the Navy Seal copypasta?
This screed is perhaps the most well-known example of copypasta—a block of text repeatedly copied and pasted onto social media and other sites for comedic purposes—to exist on the internet. It’s either a true example or a stellar imitation of someone telling lies online.
The full text reads:
What the f*ck did you just f*cking say about me, you little b*tch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla [sic] warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the f*ck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my f*cking words. You think you can get away with saying that sh*t to me over the Internet? Think again, f*cker.
As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re f*cking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little sh*t.
If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your f*cking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will sh*t fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re f*cking dead, kiddo.
Navy Seal Copypasta origins
The earliest post containing the Marine copypasta exists on an archived image board called Otaku Culture from November 11, 2010. Internet lore says that it appeared on a similar website dedicated to military enthusiasts called Operator Chan earlier in the year.
An anonymous user reportedly claimed credit for the copypasta on Operator Chan in May 2012 saying they had created it a couple of years prior, but the forum no longer exists.
Social media response and cultural significance
Likely the first appearance of the Navy Seal copypasta on Reddit occurred on April 4, 2012, when a user posted a screenshot showing a shortened version of the rant followed by a comment mocking them for using the word “gorilla” instead of “guerilla.” The most upvoted comment on the Reddit post calls the copypasta “stale.”
From its origins, internet users have created numerous versions of the screed from the perspectives of different types of people. Search hard enough and you can find pirate versions, feminist versions, Game of Thrones versions, stuffy professor versions, and so on.
In 2013, a nine-year-old named Richi Phelps reposted the copypasta to Facebook in Spanish, where it became such a sensation that Spanish news outlets reported on it.
As the years went on, the rant appeared in numerous memes, particularly well-known image macros that allow space for a long string of text.
Navy Seal copypasta song
On May 22, 2012, the YouTube account Copypasta Sings posted what would become one of their most popular entries. To this day, it remains the only video still available to watch on the account and has nearly 1.5 million views.
In the video, a man sings the entirety of the rant in a gentle voice accompanied by soft acoustic guitar over a photo of a band of Navy Seals with their eyes blacked out. The full text of the copypasta sits in the video description.
Meme examples
More copypasta:
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