About
Life Comes At You Fast is a phrase popularly used on Twitter to caption unfortunate events either written or illustrated in photos and gifs.
Origin
The phrase “Life Comes At You Fast” was popularized in 2004 by American insurance company Nationwide when they launched the “life comes at you fast” ad campaign.[1] The campaign humorously demonstrated how quickly things could go wrong in life to demonstrate why their insurance was necessary.
Spread
The joke began appearing on Twitter around 2013. One of the earliest known examples was posted by @MyNig[2] on October 3rd, 2013.
In the coming two years, “Life Comes At You Fast” became a popular caption to graphics and stories on Twitter,[3] particularly in reference to politics and sports. A Complex[4] article referenced the phrase talking about rapper Tyga. Deadspin[5] did as well in an article linking to a tweet about basketball player Hasheem Thabeet.
Various Examples
