It started as ‘Sh*t Girls Say.’ It seemed harmless enough. Most of us recognized some of our own quirks within the screaming, sighing and nighttime potato chip munching.

‘Sh*t Girls Say’ was funny and unique. Actress Juliette Lewis from 1994’s ‘Natural Born Killers’ even made a cameo, shrieking and yelling ‘twinsies!’ at a bar. Everyone has said that — or at least heard it.

Then the stand-alone video became a three-part series. Episodes one through three have garnered more than 20,000 views on YouTube.

The popularity of the short films didn’t go unnoticed by vloggers, viewers or anyone with a video camera.

When I opened up my Facebook homepage this week I knew the trend had hit its saturation point. There were three different Sh*t Insert-Type-Of-People-Here Say videos plastered on my newsfeed.

An originally creative idea has become an official epidemic on the Internet. Whether you’re a college freshman, frat bro, sorority girl or Real Housewife, there’s a video of what you probably say. There are even videos dedicated to accountants and project managers with thousands of views.

Now, the jokes and catch phrases aren’t a surprise anymore. We all know the setup. There will be a guy wearing a bad wig saying everything we expect to hear in the most annoying accent possible. He’ll be in multiple settings saying the same thing again and again, just so we remember that girls like hummus.

Since this plotline has started to get stale, YouTubers have tried to spice up the Sh*t People Say videos.

If it’s not a man doing an unusually high voice, girls are messing around with their own gender stereotypes. They’re playing up the crazy girlfriend shtick or the elusive antisocial Tumblr blogger.

How many times do we need to see a girl’s mascara running down her face or hear her ask to see her boyfriend’s phone?

But when ‘Sh*t Guys Don’t Say’ and ‘Sh*t Girls Don’t Say’ hit the web, we hit intellectual rock-bottom. We were effectively watching every stand-up comedian’s routine on the opposite sex.

‘Men just don’t want to talk about their feelings! Why don’t they ever ask for directions? And seriously, can’t they just ask for help?’

We know that already, we’ve seen a rom-com or two.

But ‘Sh*t Girls Don’t Say’ is just as predictable.

‘Women love ‘The Notebook!’ And looking at Ryan Gosling, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson. And what’s this about wanting a woman president?’

These are the questions and comments we’ve all made about the opposite sex. We don’t need to watch a 1.5-minute video to relive our biggest complaints.

Although these videos are getting increasingly more monotonous (and we’re all acknowledging it), an end is not in sight. As of Wednesday night, countless additions were made to YouTube. Both ‘Sh*t Film Snobs Say’ and ‘Sh*t Rich People Say’ have views in the thousands.

All the best topics were done early on with the fad. Now, we can only look forward to more desperate titles like ‘Sh*t I Wish My Cat Would Say.’

Ariana Romero is a sophomore magazine journalism major. Her column appears every Thursday. She can be reached at akromero@syr.edu.  

Published on January 25, 2012 at 12:00 pm