About
#DnDSelfie is a hashtag used to a catalogue selfies of fans of the fantasy role-playing board game Dungeons and Dragons. The trend was started following a Saturday Night Live sketch that characterized fans of the games as stereotypical “nerds,” and the photos are used to refute this representation.
Origin
On April 6th, 2019, Saturday Night Live aired a sketch in which a group of design employees lobby for an “Employee of the Month” award by using techniques and references to fantasy board games such as Dungeons and Dragons (clip below). The sketch featured numerous stereotypes associated with Dungeons and Dragons fans, characterizing them as “nerds.”
Employee of the Month is an honor worth fighting for. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/lIHMXh2Xil
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 7, 2019
Following the post, Twitter user @nicterhorst tweeted a selfie with the caption, “Seeing that SNL D&D skit was painful so let’s post some 🔥 selfies to remind folks that D&D doesn’t look like pocket protector clad nerds from the 80s. We’re out here being nerds now and our brand of socially awkward is frankly much more entertaining (bonus points for dice pics).” They continued the thread, “I’m bad at being pithy, so in lieu of a hashtag please feel free to start a thread of selfies and your fav dice because I live for both anyway. Get in here with #DnDSelfie let’s GO.” The initial post received more than 690 retweets and 2,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below).
Spread
Following the post, others began sharing selfies of themselves, highlighting their enjoyment of the game. These pictures, for the most part, featured images of the players and elements from the game, such as dice (shown below).
That day, Twitter published a Moments page on the hashtag.
Various Examples
