If you were anywhere near social media last week, you saw it: The butt pic that broke the internet.

We're talking, of course, about the photo of Law & Order: Organized Crime actor Chris Meloni's ample, thiccc (that's three c's, for the record), downright luscious backside that immediately had people wondering how Meloni could have so much "cake by the pound," as Beyoncé once so eloquently called it.

Well, Meloni has responded, and it's all very simple, really.

It was the perfect, cool-as-ice, quintessentially Meloni response to the internet's collective thirst meltdown.

It all began after someone snapped a photo of Meloni during a break in filming Law & Order: Organized Crime in New York, and posted it to a neighborhood social media group.

Even if you're not of the attracted-to-men persuasion, you have to admit that a** don't quit. It can't!

Nay, it shan't. It simply won't abide even being asked to quit.

So it's easy to see why it has been retweeted more than 6,000 times and has more than 30,000 likes.

Everyone basically lost their minds, and it was perfectly timed. Not only was Meloni's 60th birthday just on April 2, as he referenced in his tweet, but the furor over his booty comes amid an outpouring of love for his Law & Order character Detective Elliot Stabler's return to TV screens.

Meloni is returning to the beloved franchise after leaving 10 years ago amid failed contract negotiations.

And people loved his response to everyone's lust almost as much as they loved the booty in the first place.

Meloni may have cleared up why he has so much junk in his trunk, but the question of how we all got so lucky as to live at the same time as Meloni and his truly impressive hindquarters is an eternal mystery, as arcane and profound as the universe itself.