When someone accidentally embarrasses themselves while trying to roast or impress.
Hi from Canada; this is a 'self-own'. Stop it; try harder for crissakes #seriously
Todd Blanche commits an on-air self-own. Good for Kristin for making him confront and in essence confess that he is singling out Comey. I'll be fascinated to see how quickly the judge rules.
When someone accidentally embarrasses themselves while trying to roast or impress. The setup is theirs; the punchline writes itself. "Posting your resume with ‘detial-oriented' in the summary. Peak self-own." Usually preserved on screenshot before the original post is deleted.
"Posting your resume with ‘detial-oriented' in the summary. Peak self-own."
A 'self-own' is when someone tries to mock or own someone else but ends up embarrassing themselves instead — accidentally proving the opposite of what they meant, or revealing something unflattering about themselves. 'That tweet was a self-own' = 'they undermined their own argument'. Common in political and online discourse. If your teen uses it, they are laughing at someone's accidental self-sabotage. Harmless observational vocabulary.
Slang is read by different audiences for very different reasons. The For parents view re-explains the term in plain, non-judgemental language so a caregiver can understand what their child means without needing the surrounding subculture. The For English learners view focuses on register (when it's safe to use), formal alternatives, and common mistakes — what a textbook won't teach you.
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Viral internet speak — memes, ratios, main-character moments, and the algospeak of every platform from Twitter to Reddit to TikTok comment sections.
See all Internet & Memes slang on Slangora.
Browse all slang words starting with S.
(now, chiefly, regional, especially, southern US, Caribbean, Singlish) (One's) self; used with a preceding possessive adjective to form a pronominal phrase.
(slang) To reveal something about oneself.
(idiomatic, UK) To embarrass oneself or others in public by behaving foolishly.
To dominate or defeat thoroughly. Originally a typo of "own" that became canonical internet slang. Pronounced "own" or "pone."
Unintentionally hilarious self-own by Rubio
A 'self-own' is when someone tries to mock or own someone else but ends up embarrassing themselves instead — accidentally proving the opposite of what they meant, or revealing something unflattering about themselves. 'That tweet was a self-own' = 'they undermined their own argument'. Common in political and online discourse. If your teen uses it, they are laughing at someone's accidental self-sabotage. Harmless observational vocabulary.
'Self-own' is internet and political-discourse English for an act of trying to insult or 'own' someone else but accidentally damaging one's own reputation or argument — for example, by inadvertently proving the opposite point or revealing something unflattering. Register: informal, social media and political journalism. In formal writing use 'inadvertent self-undermining' or 'rhetorical own goal'. A common learner mistake is to confuse 'own' (verb, slang = to defeat decisively) with 'own' (verb, standard = to possess); the slang sense is the relevant one here.
“Hi from Canada; this is a 'self-own'. Stop it; try harder for crissakes #seriously”
“Todd Blanche commits an on-air self-own. Good for Kristin for making him confront and in essence confess that he is singling out Comey. I'll be fascinated to see how quickly the judge rules.”
“Unintentionally hilarious self-own by Rubio”
“He literally told the world introspection doesn’t exist. That’s a self-own if I’ve ever seen one.”
“Pat yourself on the motherfucking back. Not that his egregious self-own will stop him from unleashing hell upon you. Thanks for being strong in the face of what is sure to be some bullshit.”
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A situation in which someone unintentionally embarrasses or undermines themself.
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