About
“They Told Me I Could Be Anything I Wanted” is a snowclone catchphrase often used in image macros to parody PTSD Clarinet Boy, or to make a joke about the subject’s appearance. The phrasal template typically takes the form of “They told me I could be anything I wanted, so I became X”.
Origin
The first image macro using the phrase was a PTSD Clarinet Boy derivative that read, “They told me I could be anything I wanted, so I became a God.” The uncaptioned image came from the single topic blog Awkward Family Photos in July of 2009.
Spread
The first known posting of the captioned Clarinet Boy is a Digg[1] submission from December 11th, 2009. That day it was also posted to Tumblr by writer/comedian Julia Segal[2]. On December 14th, 2009, it was posted to Bordom.net[3]. A BodyBuilding forum[4] thread was posted on February 19th, 2010.
Search
As demonstrated by the graph above, search queries for the phrase began shortly after PTSD Clarinet Boy version was posted to Digg in December 2009.
Notable Derivatives
External Links
[1] Digg – They Told Me I Could Be Anything I Wanted… / 12/11/2009
[2] Tumblr – Julia Segal – I thought Lemmy was God…
[3] Bordom – They told me I could be anything I wanted / 12/14/2009
[4] Body Building Forums – The told me I could be anything i wanted…. / 2/19/2010