gtfo

GTFO is widely used in digital communication (e.g., tweets, text messages) to express dismissal. Many users incorporate the term beyond its written origins into their speech.

Gtfo has many functions. It can be a serious and insulting command on web forums and on social media, where one user is ordering another to leave a comment thread, message board, or so on, or it can simply be a way of dismissing a person’s claims, opinions, or feelings.

Gtfo can also signal surprise or astonishment, similar to the way that character of Elaine Benes in Seinfeld would exclaim “Get out!” accompanied by a dramatic push. For example, if someone tells you they just met a celebrity, you might respond with a gtfo. However, on social media, the online gtfo is often used in a literal sense, telling someone to go away, or perhaps expressing that they themselves want to go away—out of a situation, on vacation, or so on.

Gtfo is also positively used of travel. A website, GTFO Flights, has playfully taken advantage of the slang. The site is an airfare aggregator that monitors cheap flight deals for potential travelers, “because everyone deserves a good trip,” as it says—because everyone sometimes literally wants to get the fuck out (of town).

As a meme, gtfo is often accompanied by pictures of famous people, fictional characters, or funny animals usually with serious, angry, or annoyed expressions. These images often depict the person pointing away, similar to the character from the gtfo rage comics. Figures depicted in these memes have included everyone and everything from Barack Obama to giraffes to Darth Vader.

There are countless colorful extensions to gtfo. For instance, gtfoomw stands for get the fuck out of my way while gtfohwtbs is get the fuck out of here with that bullshit.