reply guy

English

Noun

reply guy (plural reply guys)

1. (Internet, informal, derogatory) A male commenter who leaves frequent, unsolicited, and often inappropriate replies on a woman's social media posts.
   • 2020 February 5, Annie Lord, “Why Justin Bieber’s TikTok campaign for ‘Yummy’ is so embarrassing”, in The Independent‎^[1]:

     Since the release of his new song “Yummy”, Bieber has been needier on social media than that reply guy who keeps popping up in your DMs with “you up?” messages.

   • 2022, Nina Jankowicz, How to Be a Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back‎^[2], page 45:

     This is a wonderful feature for reply guys and other less aggressive individuals, as they will never know you've muted them but you will never have to see their content again, unless you choose to.

   • 2022, Beth Nakamura, quoted in Paul Martin Lester, Stephanie A. Martin, & Martin Smith-Rodden, Visual Ethics: A Guide for Photographers, Journalists, and Media Makers, unnumbered page:

     I got trolled. As a female, we're the Twitter reply guys' punching bags. They don't like women in a position of agency.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:reply guy.
2. (Internet, informal, derogatory) Any person who leaves such replies on someone's social media posts.
   • 2019 October 16, Annabelle Williams, “Letter from the Editor”, in 34th Street Magazine, page 2:

     I joke that my mother is my Twitter “reply guy.” Anytime I tweet, well, anything, I can expect a response in record time.

   • 2021, Jules Boykoff, NOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beyond, unnumbered page:

     They use Google alerts to stay on top of Olympic-related topics, monitoring key phrases. They are known to clap back at politicians, Olympic honchos, and journalists whose work they wish to critique (or occasionally high-five). They'll also do “reply-guy” interventions, sliding into people's feeds to drum up conversation.

   • 2022 December, Monica Elkinton, “Convention speaker advocates larger Supreme Court”, in The Alaska Bar Rag, page 14:

     There is no deeper hive of scum and villainy than Twitter. But if you're already on there, worry about your own feed. Worry about being accurate and truthful. Don't be a reply guy. Just do your own feed. Ted Cruz doesn't need to know you hate him. He knows.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:reply guy.

Verb

reply guy (third-person singular simple present reply guys, present participle reply guying, simple past and past participle reply guyed)

1. (Internet, informal, derogatory) To reply to a social media post as a reply guy.

See also

• reply girl
• sealion