A Brief History Of The Greatest Twitter Hashtag Of All-Time

Illustration for article titled A Brief History Of The Greatest Twitter Hashtag Of All-Time

Sometimes, I wonder what we did in those dark years without the Internet and, more recently, without Twitter. Friday was one of those days, as I sifted through a Twitter search for a hashtag dubbed "WireDerbyHorseNames." Warning: Omar's coming, yo.

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As far as I can tell — that is, as far back as Twitter's search function extends — this gem of genius can be attributed to The Wall Street Journal's Jason Gay, who, presumably, took similar, television-themed Derby horse name hashtags and turned his attention to The Greatest Television Show Of All-Time. His first three names — Proposition Joe, Carcetti and Hungry Man — were fairly conventional, taking the hashtag quite literally. But of course, the beauty in naming Kentucky Derby horses rests not in actually naming them after characters from The Wire, but rather, naming them after catchy ideas and pithy quotes from the show. (There are exceptions. Like, Poot.) So that concept soon began to spread, and it wasn't long before the masterpieces rolled in, fewer than 140 characters at a time.

There were the character-based names:

Cool Lester Smooth

Snoop's NailGun

Stringer's Betrayal

avon calling

Lester's Dollhouse

Prezbo

Where's Wallace?

HercAndCarv

Wee-Bey'sFish

Poot

Vondas Vondopolous

You're A Sobotka

Alma Dearest

Bunny, You Look Hellacious

Bubbles Red Hat

Wee-Bay The Soldier

Ziggy & The Duck

Always Boris

Bub's Whiteys

Bought It on WeeBay!

Fuzzy Dunlop

Bubbles Depo

Dookies Piss Ballon

Detective Freamon's Tweedy Impertinence

Then, there were names devoted only to Omarisms:

The Game Is Out There

Farmer in the Dell

omar's sawed off shotgun

Gottahavemyhoneynuts

I Robs Drug Dealers

I Got The Shotgun, You Got The Briefcase

Omar's Vendetta

Man with a Code

Play or Be Played

Oh, Indeed

On a Sunday Morning

OmarComin

all in the game

no doubt

Then came the memorable quotes and anecdotes and institutions:

My Name is My Name

King Stays the King

Shit Was Unseemly

Good Police

Hamsterdam

Hamsterdamn

IWantMyCorners

Pussii

Shot and a Beer

Much Obliged

Money Aint Got No Owners

The Dickensian Aspect

Baby Booking

The Cheese Stands Alone

40 Degree Day

Doing Real Police Work

Smart Ass Pawn

tasty cake

The Sunday Truce

Money Be Green

That's Some Spiderman Shit Right There

How My Hair Look?

Rip and Run

New Day Co-Op

Wars End

Window Jumper

Murder Aint No Thang

Fight On That Lie

This ... is BULLshit

Later For That Gangsta Bullshit

Giving a Fuck When It Ain't Your Turn To Give A Fuck

Look the Part, Be the Part

You Happy Now Bitch

Heard That WMD Is The Bomb

Chain Of Command

Follow The Money

PAN-demic

Tweedy Impertinence

Some Spiderman Shit

I Made Him Walk Like That

The Fraudulent Red Ribbon

Nut Deep In Random Pussy

Heaven and Here

Where's My Harpers?

Ain't Never Gone Be Slow

All In The Game

Goodnight Po-Po's

Yellow Tops

Crab Chips and Snapple

Juke The Stats

Shitbird

Got Got

Game Is Rigged

And, maybe my favorites, variations on Clay Davis's preferred expletive:

Sheeeeeeeit

Sheeeeeeeeeeeit

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttt

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit

[reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedacted]

Oh, indeed.

#WireDerbyHorseNames [Twitter]
https://deadspin.com/a-brief-history-of-the-greatest-twitter-hashtag-of-all-5528834
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