Schizoposting On The Rise: 'Trollge,' 'Pill Time' And 'I Hate The Antichrist'

Welcome to the third edition of the Rage Report, an occasional series where we check in on the latest developments in the world of Rage Comics, Trollfaces and everything related to one of the world’s most continually influential dead meme formats.

Since our last update, Schizoposting has taken over as the latest and largest subgenre of Rage Comics, and its tentacles can be found in just about every corner of social media right now. Here’s everything you need to know to prepare for the chaos.

Schizoposting

We alluded briefly to the origins of Schizoposting with the Trollface Incident meme in the last Rage Report, which was going through something of a peak at the time. Since then, the practice has become a full-blown subgenre of Rage Comics and evolved in a number of ways, keeping with it the dark tones of the Trollface Incident comics and expanding on them in a number of ways that have given the format life.

Schizoposting is a new genre of post-ironic Rage Comics based mostly around schizophrenia and mental illness. Schizoposting takes a lot of forms, sometimes a schizopost seems as though it was made by a stereotypically schizophrenic person or someone who is mentally “unhinged,” while other times the post simply makes broad, absurd, often dark and nonsensical jokes about topics surrounding severe mental illness, such as manic thoughts, worries about gangstalking and conspiracy theories, and jokes about taking medication. Religion is also a major part of the genre, with the insane characters often portrayed as Christian. Some posts are simple, light takes on depression, while others go a considerable few notches deeper than that.

The origins of Schizoposting are still a little cloudy, with a number of spinoff formats related to it all cropping up at similar times. Beyond Rage Comics, Schizoposters also apply similar themes to more basic image macro and dank meme formats, adding another layer of the genre that needs to be explored.

As far as the Rage Comic subgenre of Schizoposting goes, though, Cover Yourself In Oil played a big part in re-popularizing Trollface and the Rage Comic format, while Trollface incident posts helped solidify the dark nature of the modern wave of Rage Comics. However, the main inspiration seems to be the shadowy counterpart to the Trollface you’re likely familiar with at this point: Trollge.

Trollge

If Trollface can be called the mascot of Rage Comics, then Trollge, a dark version of Trollface with a closed mouth, is the mascot of Schizoposting. Trollge has been around since 2016, originating from an unsettling GIF of Trollface going from a neutral closed-mouth to a full smile. The GIF didn’t see significant spread until dropping on iFunny in July 2020.

The earliest modern “Trollge” memes depict the face next to captions talking about its imminent escape, warning readers to run and hide. Trollge’s face is used in all stages; some post him unsmiling, some post him with a half-smile, and some with the full Trollface grin, albeit much darker thanks to the shadows. Each facial position represents a stage of the character’s descent into true madness, giving creators a lot of options. Unsmiling Trollge represents quiet insanity, and oftentimes a person whose madness is being subdued by medication. On the other hand, the full smile represents Joker-like levels of unhinged at its most intense. All of this helps solidify Trollge as a darker, more deranged version of the Trollface, making him a perfect character to apply to the new age of post-ironic Rage Comics for a number of reasons.

Trollge appears in almost every schizoposting spin-off to date, heavily featuring in the Trollface Incident, Pill Time and two-panel Cover Yourself in Oil formats (shown below). The creepy face is particularly effective for those who grew up with Rage Comics, giving off mixed feelings of nostalgia and newfound fear for something ultimately remembered as funny. In a way, it represents the millennial shift in humor from the typical to the more absurd and dark that’s been observed and hypothesized on countless times across the web.

In this way, the meme marketplace demanded a “broken” version of its old friend Trollface to represent this change, and memers are supporting it with the strength of an army. Even more interesting, Trollge isn’t the only new character Rage Comic fans have been given by the rise of Schizoposting.

I Hate The Antichrist & The Crazy Trollface

Beyond Trollge, Schizoposting has brought with it the rise of the Crazy Trollface, a Trollface with a massive open mouth and wide eyes, as if going absolutely insane.

This character is mainly known for the I Hate The Antichrist Schizoposting format, first cropping up in December 2020. This format is based on a schizo comic about killing members of the UN with tesla coils and being allowed clearance into heaven, the UN being depicted as the antichrist, a conspiracy theory supported by Left Behind author Tim LaHaye.

The comic soon became a format of its own, often reduced to a single exploitable image of a “Crazy Trollface” character holding a gun and repeating “I HATE THE ANTICHRIST” as two blue-helmets (UN members) bust into his house. The image has been photoshopped countless times now, becoming one of the most popular Schizoposting formats yet.

The Crazy Trollface is a perfect companion for Trollge in the Schizoposting genre. While Trollge represents the dark, jaded, ultimately depressing side of stereotypical mental illness in an obviously exaggerated way, as well as a person held back by medication, Crazy Trollface represents the manic, conspiratorial and unhinged side of the character, often being depicted as “off his meds.” Crazy Trollface goes one step further than the Full Smiling Trollge and separates itself from the shadows that give Trollge so much of its eeriness, allowing it to stand on its own as an independent character free from the more depressing side of the subgenre. It can be used in that way easily but doesn't have to be. This arguably makes “I Hate The Antichrist” a good entry to Schizoposting as one of the lighter results of the genre, as well as a fine ending point for those uninterested in delving further.

Pill Time

In the last Rage Report, we talked about the evolution of the Peach Time format, primarily found on Tumblr where it remains used to this day. Now, Schizoposters have adopted the format as their own, changing the delicious peach in question to schizophrenia medication.

The meme essentially sees Trollface making a statement about loving something, taking pills, then having that thing disappear before his eyes. The final panel features Trollface as Trollge, wondering what’s happened to the object of his desire, learning that it’s just a figment of his imagination or a distant repressed memory. The meme is depressing no matter how you cut it, and it plays off of a real fear of the way prescription drugs alter the user’s mind in ways that are ultimately negative. It’s saved from being too depressing thanks to the absurd desires often given to the Troll, from an orangutan to any number of busty anime waifus.

This one is relegated to pretty much the deepest fans of the subgenre. It’s one of the weaker spinoffs and suffers from the same issues as Peach Time, allowing only so many possibilities before becoming too repetitive. The meme does stand as a great representation of how influenced Schizoposting is by Rage Comics, however, slapping a new coat of paint on yet another classic Rage Comic format to keep expanding on the possibilities of the genre. It takes the classic format and twists it, offering a darker, fresher take. It'll be interesting to see if other past Rage Comic success will be repurposed in this way for Schizoposting.

Trollge-Tok & Candice Who?

Schizoposting is crawling further out of the darkness every day, and it’s planted its seed in just about every mainstream social media platform. The trend has even reached TikTok, to some degree, with the Trollge face featuring heavily in the Candice Who? trend that riddled the platform this month. The trend is similar to ligma or deez nuts, trying to get people to ask who Candice is. Many of the videos in the trend end with a fade-in of Trollge, an obvious reference not just to Trollface but to the earliest Trollge GIF. Although these aren't schizoposts themselves, they're arguably a result of schizoposting thanks to the presence of Trollge, and show Trollge as the new, popular Trollface in town. The trend could just have easily used the less dark variant, but it just doesn't capture that same sense of unnecessary, ironic dread that the 'Candice Who?' trend demands.

A number of “Trollge” and determined Schizoposting accounts have also popped up on the platform lately, some gaining significant attention with videos boasting hundreds of thousands of views, some bordering on millions. One of the most popular accounts, @qmgntt, has gained over 50,000 followers since April. All of their videos present Schizo comics (mostly Trollface Incident posts) over eerie music to great effect. Another account with over 40,000 followers, @Trollgeover, posts “How to troll your X” videos featuring the same Schizoposting themes. The videos often seem normal enough at first then get darker as they go, emitting a very uncomfortable aura throughout and adapting the format to video pretty successfully.

There’s a surprising influx of these pages and videos popping up on TikTok. Many of them are based in Russia, where Schizoposting also seems significantly popular, but many others are North American. The tag #trollge currently boasts over 15 million total views, and many posts are from the last month, showing an increase in the trend. Whether or not Trollge and Schizoposting can possibly last on TikTok remains to be seen, though.

/r/He_comes

While Schizoposting pops up everywhere from time to time, one of the main hubs for Schizoposters is /r/he_comes, a subreddit with 9,000 members who post the most extreme versions of Schizoposts. These memes feature everything we’ve talked about above and more, often including heavy references to Christianity and deeply buried conspiracy theories, as much text and imagery as possible to overcrowd the space and give off a feeling of mania, and captions that come off like a madman yelling on a street corner.

/r/He_comes is essentially the ultimate Schizophrenic-memer roleplaying forum on the web. It’ll either be one of your favorite spaces on the web immediately or send you packing. If there’s anything that can be applauded of /r/he_comes and Schizoposters though, it’s the effort that they put into their craft. The simplest Rage Comic format is often turned into a maximalist nightmare by Schizoposters, and there’s something to be said about the originality of the posts and the way they’re put together to come out so genuinely insane. If you want to dive straight into the Schizoposting rabbit hole, /r/he_comes is the place to go.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Schizoposting has come a long way in a short few months, and its future looks bright. Although the trend is arguably insensitive towards those suffering from mental illness, that isn’t going to stop it from growing or Schizoposters from Schizoposting. Fortunately for the Schizoposters, that hasn’t become an issue yet. The format hasn’t grown enough to inspire any criticism from mental health advocates, and it may not at all. As they say, it’s best not to feed the trolls. Beyond these potential problems, the format is bringing out the dark, creative and most ironic side of many memers. Whatever the results, it will be interesting to see where its dedicated community takes it in the coming months.

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