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Wojak

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The original Wojak image

Wojak (Polish: Wojak, lit. 'warrior, soldier', [vɔjak], VOH-yahk), also known as feels guy, is an internet meme. An image depicted as a simple, black-outlined cartoon drawing of a bald, wistful-looking man, it is used to generically express emotions such as melancholy, regret, or loneliness.

History

"Wojak" was originally the nickname of the Polish user Sebastian Grodecki, on the English-language "International" board of the defunct German imageboard Krautchan.[1] He started posting the picture that later became known as Wojak somewhere around 2010, often accompanying it with the template phrase "That feel when X" along with variants.[2] It spread to other international image boards, including 4chan, where by 2011 an image of two Wojaks hugging each other under the caption "I know that feel bro" gained popularity. Wojak's face was also paired with the phrase "that feel" or "that feel when", often shortened to "tfw".[1]

Later variants often paired Wojak with the originally unrelated character of Pepe the Frog.[3] The relationship between these characters varied significantly depending on the artist, with Pepe sometimes providing Wojak with companionship and other times subjecting him to violent and scatological abuse.

Notable Variants

Brainlet

In 2016, the act of posting modified Wojak faces of ridiculed or deformed nature (referred to as "brainlet" Wojaks) emerged as a way to criticize the intelligence of a poster as a form of ad hominem argument. A common variation of Wojak-derived images posted in this trend are heads with disproportionately large, wrinkled brains, meant to depict high intelligence.[4]

NPC

The typical expressionless NPC.

In October 2018, a Wojak with a gray face, pointy nose and blank, emotionless facial expression, dubbed "NPC" Wojak, became a popular visual representation for non-player characters—which are typically computer-automated characters within a video game—intended to represent actual people who supposedly cannot think for themselves or make their own decisions. NPC Wojak has gained online notoriety.[5][6] The meme gained media attention, initially in Kotaku and The New York Times, due to its usage in parodying the herd mentality of American liberals.[5][7] This usage of the meme has been attributed to Donald Trump supporters.[8][9] About 1,500 Twitter accounts falsely posing as liberal activists with the NPC meme as a profile picture were suspended for spreading misinformation about the 2018 United States elections.[7][9] On January 13, 2019, a conservative art collective known as "The Faction" hijacked a billboard for Real Time with Bill Maher, replacing Maher's image with that of the NPC Wojak.[10]

Coomer

In November 2019, the "Coomer" Wojak picked up in popularity with the "No Nut November" trend. The Coomer depicts a Wojak edit with unkempt hair and untidy beard, to mock men addicted to internet pornography and masturbation.[11] A lot of the popularity of this meme can be attributed to the "Coomer Pledge", a viral internet trend which dared people to abstain from masturbation for all of November, and change their profile picture to an image of the Coomer if they were to fail.[12]

See also

  • Doomer
  • Philosophical zombie – a philosophical concept of a being that simulates having a consciousness without having one.
  • Polandball – another meme which originated on Krautchan to make fun of the user Wojak before spreading to the English-speaking world.
  • Rage comic – a similar meme which also uses derivative copies of a black-and-white MS paint illustration.

References

  1. ^ a b Brown, Elizabeth Nolan. "That Feeling When..." Bustle. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
  2. ^ Feldman, Brian. "What 4chan Memes Will Go Mainstream in 2017?". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  3. ^ "The Creator of Pepe the Frog Talks About Making Comics in the Post-Meme World". Vice. 2015-07-28. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
  4. ^ Feldman, Brian. "People Are Arguing About the Size of Their Brains Using MS-Paint Illustrations". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
  5. ^ a b Alexander, Julia (October 23, 2018). "The NPC meme went viral when the media gave it oxygen". The Verge. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  6. ^ Sommerlad, Joe. "What is an NPC? The liberal-bashing meme sweeping social media ahead of the US midterms". The Independent. Retrieved 2018-10-23.
  7. ^ a b "Why has Twitter banned 1500 accounts and what are NPCs?". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
  8. ^ "Twitter suspends accounts for 'coordinated' far-right trolling campaign". New York Post. 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2018-10-23.
  9. ^ a b "What Is NPC, the Pro-Trump Internet's New Favorite Insult?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
  10. ^ Bond, Paul (January 13, 2019). "Bill Maher Labeled "NPC" by Conservative Street Artists". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  11. ^ Dickson, E. J.; Dickson, E. J. (2019-11-08). "How a New Meme Exposes the Far-Right Roots of #NoNutNovember". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  12. ^ Iskiev, Max (2019-11-11). "Breaking Down the 'Coomer Pledge' Taking Over No Nut November 2019". StayHipp. Retrieved 2019-12-30.

External links

Look up wojak in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wojak&oldid=935491745"