Sus comes from Among Us, the multiplayer social deduction game released by Innersloth in 2018, where crewmates complete tasks while one or more imposters secretly eliminate them. Players shortened suspicious to sus during emergency meetings, and the term exploded online in 2020 as the game went viral on streaming platforms. Calling someone the imposter became shorthand far beyond the game itself, used in chats, memes and videos whenever a person seems dishonest, evasive or caught in an obvious lie.