Mick McCarthy ‘It Can’ Interview: Full Story of the Viral Meme

Original viral interview year: 2002 (Wolverhampton Wanderers press conference) · Google searches per month (estimated): Unknown (low volume, niche meme) · Top organic result type: Podcast clip (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) · Number of related search queries provided: 8 (gif, full interview, meme, net worth, Roy Keane, wife) · Dominant platform for the meme: Facebook / social media short clips

Seven facts, one pattern: this is a meme built from almost nothing — two words, a pause, and zero context.

The catch: the internet kept the answer and dropped the question, which is exactly why the clip still works.

What Did Mick McCarthy Say in the ‘It Can’ Interview?

The clip is so short that most remixes don’t bother with setup. A reporter asks whether the situation can continue; McCarthy looks at him, pauses, and answers with two words.

The exact exchange between reporter and manager

• Reporter: “It can’t go on like this, can it?”
• McCarthy: “It can.”
• Setting: a Wolverhampton Wanderers press conference in 2002.

That setting does a lot of work. A manager under pressure, a question loaded with doom, and a reply that offers no comfort, no explanation, and no drama — just a flat acknowledgement that yes, it can go on.

Why the phrase ‘It can’ became memorable

• The one-word answer creates a comic contrast with the reporter’s long-winded question.
• The deadpan delivery gives the line a second layer: is he joking, serious, or both?
• The clip works with zero context, which is why it travels beyond football fans.

Meme culture rewards exactly this kind of compression. The shorter the beat — question, pause, “It can.” — the easier it is to drop into a group chat, a comment thread, or a reaction-image search.

The pattern: the less McCarthy says, the louder the clip gets.

When Did the Mick McCarthy ‘It Can’ Meme Start?

The recording is from 2002; the meme economy took a while to catch up with it.

Original 2002 press conference date

• The press conference is generally dated to 2002, around February, during McCarthy’s Wolverhampton Wanderers spell.
• The exact day is not widely documented across the clips, podcasts, and reposts that circulate the exchange.
• That missing detail hasn’t slowed the clip down.

The same spring produced a far more serious McCarthy press-conference moment. RTÉ (Ireland’s national broadcaster) reported on 23 May 2002 that McCarthy announced Roy Keane had been sent home from Ireland’s World Cup training camp in Saipan, after a meeting that McCarthy described as a “slanging match,” as The Irish Times (Ireland’s newspaper of record) reported.

CNN (international news outlet), meanwhile, reported that Keane had criticized the squad’s World Cup preparations before the confrontation and had insulted McCarthy during it.

Resurfacing and social media spread

• Mid-2000s to early 2010s: the clip moved through email, fan forums, and early video-sharing pages.
• 2010s: Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit turned it into a mainstream meme; GIF versions appeared.
• 2020: McCarthy’s return as Republic of Ireland manager brought the clip back in front of a new audience.
• 2023 onward: podcast “classic clips” episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts keep it in rotation.

The 2020 spike is the clearest signal that the meme runs on reminders, not anniversaries: whenever McCarthy reappears in the news, someone re-posts the two-word answer and the cycle starts again.

Why Did Mick McCarthy’s ‘It Can’ Phrase Go Viral?

Most football clips go viral for the action on the pitch. This one went viral for the absence of action at the microphone.

Deadpan delivery as a comedic element

• The reporter sets up a big moment; McCarthy gives it no oxygen.
• The one-word answer reads as a dry joke because the delivery never breaks.
• Part of the joke is that the reply works as a shrug and a flex at once: yes, it can — and there’s nothing you can do about it.

The response resonated with football fans because every supporter has sat through a spiral of bad results and heard a manager talk around it. McCarthy skipped the talking around it.

Shared on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit

• Clip length under 30 seconds makes it easy to embed and forward.
• GIF versions strip it to the essential beat: question, pause, “It can.”
• Podcast episodes, including “classic clips” editions on Spotify and That Peter Crouch Podcast, hand it to listeners who never saw the original broadcast.

GIFs and short clips favour minimalism. The “It can” moment is roughly two seconds of screen time, and that compression is why it survives in feeds where most content is scrolled past in a blink.

Why this matters: a meme that survives on timing rather than context can outlive the news cycle, the manager’s career, and even the original question.

Where Can I Watch the Full Mick McCarthy ‘It Can’ Interview?

There is no single official archive page for the press conference; the exchange survives in fragments, podcast replays, and social reposts.

Podcast clips on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

• Episodes organized around “classic clips” feature the moment, including coverage on That Peter Crouch Podcast.
• Spotify and Apple Podcasts carry the episodes that discuss how McCarthy went viral with two words.
• These versions add commentary, giving listeners the context the clip itself never needed.

Facebook and Reddit posts containing the clip

• Shortened versions circulate as video posts on Facebook.
• Reddit threads treat it as both a reaction clip and a piece of football history.
• Because the clip is short, it embeds easily in comment sections and message chains.

The full press conference is harder to pin down than the fragment, but the 30 seconds that matter are everywhere — which is the meme working as intended.

The trade-off: completeness loses to circulation. The internet chose the best 30 seconds and let the rest go.

Is There a Mick McCarthy ‘It Can’ GIF?

Yes — and the GIF does the same work as the clip: question, stare, two words.

Where to find the GIF

• GIF versions were extracted directly from the press-conference video.
• They circulate in fan posts and reaction-image collections whenever football arguments need a deadpan closer.

How to share the GIF

• Download it and upload it as a reaction to anything that “can’t go on.”
• Caption templates usually keep the original line or swap in a personal complaint.

The upshot: the GIF is the meme’s most portable form — two seconds of 2002 that slide into any argument where someone needs a flat “It can.”

Timeline: Two Decades of ‘It Can’

The meme has two overlapping histories: the clip itself and the season that surrounded it.

• February 2002: McCarthy gives a press conference as Wolverhampton Wanderers manager; a reporter asks “It can’t go on like this, can it?” and McCarthy replies “It can.”
• 22 May 2002: BBC Sport (the UK’s public-service broadcaster) reports McCarthy saying Keane has trained, is fine, and should play in the World Cup.
• 23 May 2002: RTÉ (Ireland’s national broadcaster) reports McCarthy’s announcement that Keane has been sent home, with senior players including Niall Quinn, Alan Kelly, and Steve Staunton publicly backing the manager. The Football Association of Ireland also supported the decision, according to The Irish Times (Ireland’s newspaper of record).
• Late May 2002: CNN (international news outlet) reports that players said they did not want Keane returned to the World Cup squad and that the team’s interests were best served without him.
• Mid-2000s to early 2010s: the “It can” clip circulates through email, fan forums, and early video-sharing pages.
• 2010s: the meme spreads across Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit; GIF versions appear.
• 2020: McCarthy’s return as Republic of Ireland manager resurfaces the clip for a new audience.
• 2023 onward: podcast “classic clips” episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts keep the moment alive.

Confirmed Facts vs. What’s Unclear

The further the clip travels from the original event, the thinner the documentary trail becomes. Both lists matter for anyone trying to trace the meme.

The implication: a meme this small doesn’t need a complete record. The missing details become gaps that every new retelling fills with its own context.

The Words Behind the Meme

Two types of 2002 McCarthy quotes survive: the deadpan line that became a meme, and the serious words from the Saipan fallout.

“It can’t go on like this, can it?”

“It can.”

Reporter and Mick McCarthy, Wolverhampton Wanderers press conference, 2002

“One of the best players in the world.”

Mick McCarthy on Roy Keane, quoted by BBC Sport (the UK’s public-service broadcaster) on 22 May 2002

The meeting became a “slanging match.”

Mick McCarthy, as reported by The Irish Times (Ireland’s newspaper of record)

The first quote made him a meme; the other two made him the manager who sent Roy Keane home. It is rare for one man’s press-conference record to contain both.

The contrast is the story: the same manager, a day apart, praising Keane as one of the world’s best and then expelling him from a World Cup camp.

The Takeaway

The “It can” clip is now bigger than any single season, club, or controversy attached to it. It survived because it is compact, quotable, and instantly reusable — three qualities that matter more online than archival completeness. For Mick McCarthy, the choice is clear: lean into the joke, or keep the deadpan face that made it immortal.

Frequently asked questions