The phrase “fuck them kids” is best known today as an internet meme associated with Michael Jordan, but it actually comes from multiple pop culture moments rather than one person clearly “coining” it.

Short direct answer

  • The most widely referenced version online is a fake inspirational-style graphic of Michael Jordan with the quote “fuck them kids,” created by a Twitter/X user named Killa Tex around 2018.
  • Jordan never actually says the line on camera; the meme was inspired by a 2016 camp video where he keeps making shots so the kids do not win free Jordans, which people jokingly summarized as “fuck them kids.”
  • A lot of meme historians also point out that Bernie Mac literally says a version of the line in the 2008 movie Soul Men , which is likely an earlier and more direct usage that later blended into the meme culture around the phrase.

How the meme took off

  • In 2016, a video showed Michael Jordan at a kids’ basketball camp betting that if he missed three shots, the campers would get free Air Jordans; he made every shot, so the kids got nothing, which people later framed with the joke “fuck them kids.”
  • Around 2018, when that clip resurfaced, user Killa Tex posted the now-iconic black-and-white Jordan image with the text “fuck them kids,” which became the template used across Twitter/X, Instagram, and beyond.
  • Since then, the phrase has been slapped on other characters and celebrities (like Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith) whenever someone online wants to joke that a character clearly does not care about kids.

So who “really” said it?

Because the phrase exists in everyday speech and in multiple works, there is no single, definitive origin:

  • As a meme quote , people mainly attribute it to the edited Michael Jordan graphic made by Killa Tex.
  • As an actual spoken movie line , Bernie Mac in Soul Men is often cited as the cleanest, earlier on-screen “fuck them kids” moment tied to how the meme sounds.
  • The phrase itself fits long-standing slang patterns (for example, “them” used in place of “those” in some dialects), so it likely existed in speech before any of these specific clips or memes.

How it’s used online now

  • People use “fuck them kids” jokingly to show exaggerated indifference toward children’s wants, like not sharing snacks or not wanting to babysit, usually with a clear comedic tone.
  • It has spawned formats like “If ‘fuck them kids’ was a person” or edits where different characters are captioned with the line.
  • In more recent years, the phrase has been remixed in TikTok audios and other meme sounds that lean into the same “I’m choosing myself over other people’s kids” vibe.

Bottom line:

  • The internet mostly treats Michael Jordan (via the Killa Tex meme) as the face of “fuck them kids,” even though he did not literally say it in that form.
  • Bernie Mac’s line in Soul Men is a strong earlier source where the phrase is actually spoken.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.