What CTFU Means and Where to Use it?

CTFU stands for ‘Cracking the F*** Up’. It is an internet jargon used mostly on almost all social networking websites. It is used when you find something super funny and are laughing so hard that you are ‘cracking up’.

Cracking up here in this acronym CTFU is when someone breaks into laughter which is so hard, and so prolonged that you start getting tears in your eyes.

Just how certain memes make you and your friends crack up and laugh like lunatics at such stuff, that feeling, if could be described in a few words, would be CTFU that is, ‘Cracking the F*** Up’. Basically, it is an addition to the mass variety of internet slangs such as TFW, OTP, etc.

When should you use CTFU?

Using acronyms on social media forums or even texting can be a bit confusing. Because sometimes, people use this internet jargon completely out of context. So first of all, make sure that someone you are talking to, said or showed something ‘funny’ enough for you to reply to them with a CTFU.  If it didn’t really crack you up, then don’t send it just for the sake of using internet slang.

CTFU reflects the level of your laughter. And cracking up is probably the highest ever level of laughter as far as I know. Because when you crack up, you laugh uncontrollably.

When should you NOT use CTFU?

You cannot use CTFU when you just get a slight giggle or a chuckle. If the joke just made you giggle, you write an acronym like LOL. Which is one of the most popularly used acronyms on social media. People use it when they don’t even giggle.

Since the acronym has the F word in it, you cannot use CTFU when talking to someone you need to have a decent conversation with or someone you are not frank with. For instance, you cannot use CTFU in a work chat or a work email. That will give a very unprofessional impression.

And lastly, not everyone is an internet slang genius. So there are more than 50% chances that not all the people know what CTFU stands for. So, in a situation where you feel that the person at the receiving end would not be updated about what CTFU means, it is better to either use the full form or use an old alternative for the abbreviation.

Let’s take a look at some examples for CTFU.

Examples for CTFU

Example 1

Situation: Your best friend just tagged you in an alien meme on the internet. And you cannot stop laughing after seeing that meme because it is so relatable. So this is what your reply to your best friend would be, to show that you are cracking up laughing.

‘CTFU’

Yes, that is it. You don’t have to add phrases to it, because CTFU in itself is self-explanatory. Your best friend will feel content that the joke did its job of making you laugh so hard that you start crying.

Example 2

Situation: You are in your office, and your friend sent you a very funny office joke. You started laughing out really hard.  So much so that you literally had arms around your stomach. (One usually feels a sort of pain in their stomach when they laugh really hard)

So to show your friend a virtual image of how you are feeling right now, you can send him one single message which will be enough for them to understand your response. That is, CTFU.

Example 3

You: CTFU!!!

Friend: What happened?

You: My boss just sent me an email by mistake which was for someone else. And it is lethal!

Here, having such incidents where you get a wrong message or an intense message which was supposed to be for someone else but you somehow received it, can be hilarious at times. That would be a good time to use the acronym CTFU, but obviously, you won’t be sending it to the person who mistakenly sent you that message.

Example 4

Friend 1: CTFU

Friend 2: Tell me!

Friend 1: Grandma just drank a whole can of red bull and now she has wings!

Friend 2: Send me a video right now.

Now in this example, you can use CTFU when you witness something extremely funny and want to share it with the people you message. And these live moments are the funniest. Even funnier than the memes.

How to Use CTFU?

The examples shared above are just a few ways in which you can use CTFU. But messaging is not the only place where you can use this acronym. For instance, you can use the grandma example. You made a video of your grandma and upload it on any of the social media forums, and caption it grandma got wings with a hashtag ‘CTFU’. Similarly, you will also see people commenting g on that video CTFU.

Use it the way you like it.