Brother, may i have some oats

About
“Brother, May I Have Some Oats” is a copypasta expression associated with a painting of two pigs, which is commonly circulated on 4chan’s /s4s/ and /r9k/ boards where it is often referred to as “oatposting.”

Origin
On October 10th, 2016, Twitter user @markyannna[4] tweeted a painting of two large pigs with the caption “brother may I have some oats” (shown below). Over the next three months, the tweet gathered upwards of 18,000 likes and 12,400 retweets. According to the Compton Verney[7] art gallery, the oil on canvas painting titled “A Pair of Pigs” was created in 1850 by an unknown artist.

Spread
On October 30th, 2016, Tumblr[3] user nanalie posted a screenshot of the tweet, which gained over 68,000 notes in two months. On December 31st, 2016, an anonymous 4chan user posted the picture along with the message “Brother dear, would you please pas the oats?” to the /s4s/ (♥♥♥♥ 4chan says) board (shown below).

On January 2nd, an /r9k/[5] user posted a thread with the pigs painting accompanied by the caption “May I have some oats, brother” (shown below). Prior to being archived, the thread received more than 300 replies.

On January 4th, 2017, YouTuber Joe Capo published a video titled “Brother May Have Any Oats” (shown below). That, the Difficulty II Facebook page reposted the video, which gained over 191,000 views, 3,700 reactions and 2,600 shares in less than 24 hours. On January 5th, Redditor quitethepersona submitted a screenshot of a 4chan thread featuring the pigs painting to /r/4chan.