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In Dallas, Brandon Johnson watched CBS's election night coverage through a YouTube stream. By Wednesday afternoon, he had taken to X to write: "the lib out we're all gonna have this weekend …" However, it's already begun.
Democrats had a good night Tuesday, and apparently, so did the people who have been waiting for an excuse to put their pronouns back in their email signatures and turn data centers into Criterion Closets. As Democratic candidates flipped Republican-held seats in Texas, Kansas and South Carolina, among other states, X overflowed with jokes about the return of liberal ideas, with many of the punchlines about bringing back cultural touchstones associated with the Obama era and peak Millennialism. The platform had become its own election night afterparty, where users celebrated through pop culture references and rediscovered their political confidence through banter.
For starters: Referring to X as Twitter. Or attributing the blue wave to the forthcoming "Girls" reboot starring Lena Dunham. Or changing the pledge of allegiance into the lyrics of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."
"It's just such a palpable energy when we get a rare win, and this is hands down the biggest political win I've been a part of in my entire adult life," said Johnson, 26. "Everything is a party right now and you can't help but get sucked into it."
Emotionally invested in an exaggerated way
So, what exactly is "libbing out?"
Know Your Meme, a website that documents internet memes and viral phenomena, defines "libbing out" as "a slang term used by liberal voters ("libs") to joke about engaging with and feeling overwhelming positivity about a progressive, liberal political agenda."
In practice, it's a shorthand for the kind of exuberant, sometimes exaggerated political mood you may be seeing online. And it doesn't necessarily require anyone to use the phrase itself. Sometimes, it's simply more about the behavior: the meme dumping, the if-you-know-you-know references with the absurdity of it all being the point.
It's less about making a serious political declaration than making sure everyone on your timeline knows you're having a good time.
Its origins, explained Don Caldwell, the editor in chief of Know Your Meme, are difficult to trace, as is much of anything birthed on the internet. But he believes the phrase's earliest known use can be traced back to a 2021 tweet from Max Collins, front man of the band Eve 6 (E6). At the time, "libbed out" was used more as a demeaning term. Since then, the phrase has been reclaimed and used by people across the political left at various times.
"The simplest definition I would kind of give it is to become super excited, optimistic, emotionally invested in liberal or democratic politics in a kind of exaggerated, humorous sports fan kind of way," Caldwell said. "You're so excited about your side winning that you temporarily abandon the typical skepticism."
Part of the appeal, at least for some users, is how easy the joke is to adapt. For Trevor Fraley of New Jersey, joining in meant taking a familiar format and giving it its own twist.
All you had to do was "fill in the blanks of ‘we're turning [blank] into [blank]' into any absurd talking point that has been touted by any subgroup to drum up drama in political ads," said Fraley, 32.
Farley's post read, "We're turning data centers into Barnes and Nobles." Another user posted, "Turn the Trump Ballroom into a Covid Conscious Lesbian Bar."
'Libbing out' can take on different shades of meaning
The phrase has resurfaced at different political moments, each time carrying slightly different stakes but retaining its familiar sense of online self-awareness.
"Libbing out" didn't originate with Tuesday's results. During the 2024 presidential campaign between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, people turned their anxiety into joking posts about liberal optimism, where one's optimism was the joke. Back then, a typical X joke went something like: "libbing out so hard that i'm fantasizing about a blue texas."
The gags have since taken on new forms. On Tuesday night, user @cinderellini, posted a clip of two women from Netflix's "The Hunting Wives" caressing each other, captioning it: "streets are saying this is what turned texas blue."
The subtext: Maybe all Texas needed was a little lesbian-coded television.
Then came November 2025, when Zohran Mamdani won New York's mayoral election. The phrase resurfaced, but this time the jokes were attached to an actual victory. People posted about being allowed to "lib out" for 24 hours, with the weekend seemingly reserved for the occasion.
"With the Kamala Harris situation, it wasn't used to express a victory. It was about, like, "libbing out" to be enthusiastic about the candidacy that didn't actually pan out," Caldwell said. "Then, it changed with Zohran having the victory. And then it was, you know, used to express like actually winning."
Tuesday night's posts carried the same celebratory energy. But why does political excitement online often arrive wrapped in irony?
Why it becomes an easily reusable political shorthand has everything to do with the way it has manifested online, in the form of memes. Yes, "libbing out" is like becoming the most obnoxious sports fan, but you're not really doing it in bars or dancing on tables (though some might), you're mostly doing it online with your peers.
"This has kind of become an expression that is born on social media. It expresses kind of a social media enthusiasm, a way to connect with a large amount of people over distance," Caldwell said, explaining that this is one of the main ways memes are used. "They're like the language of the internet."
The votes may still be coming in, but the internet has already moved on to imagining what a Democratic comeback might look like: estrogen on tap at Applebee's, every Bass Pro Shop a government-funded lesbian petting zoo and a BuzzFeed comeback in the name of millennial optimism.
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