Memescape: The Perfect Caricature Of Wojak Comics

Much like the Rage Comics that dominated the early 2010s, comics featuring variations of the meme character Wojak have become an omnipresent phenomenon across the internet. Representing caricatures of many personality types found both online and offline, Soyjak, Chad, Zoomer, Doomer Girl, Trad Girl and the rest of the Wojak ensemble have become avatars for people one respects or despises, with mememakers wrapping their social and political views in an easily digestible yet very powerful meme format.

A set of memes consisting of simple interactions between Wojak characters, Wojak Comics have been around since mid-2019. Before Wojak Comics really became a thing, many of their characters were already there – from the default Wojak, first introduced over a decade ago on the German imageboard Krautchan, to its many Oomer Wojak offsprings such as 30-Year Old Boomer, Doomer and Zoomer. Before 2019, Wojaks were a thing you would rarely see outside of imageboards, with 4chan being the central hub for all Wojak-related memery.

But before diving into Wojak Comics, another page of meme history must be turned. Nordic and Mediterranean memes have never technically been Wojaks, but are generally regarded as their closest relatives and are nowadays being rarely distinguished from Wojaks by anyone except the most hard-line meme pundits. As Oomer Wojaks became recognizable caricatures of different personality types, the Nordic and Mediterannean-inspired characters became stereotypical representations of various nationalities and ethnic groups.

In some ways, the Nordic and Mediterranean characters are as much a predecessor to Wojak Comics as Wojak himself. The format, which usually appeared as a single-panel comic, was the first to introduce interactions between these caricatures adored on sites like 4chan. Additionally, the Nordic Chad character appeared in the first Wojak Comic and has been an iconic member of the cast ever since.

The story of Wojak Comics began on August 1st, 2019, when Twitter user @yachs_91 posted the historic illustration of a female Grayons character calling a man wearing gaming headset a "virgin." Seemingly unfazed by the insult, the man simply replies "yes." This "yes" changed everything.

The power of Yes Chad is that the format doesn't try to argue with how things are – instead, it has the power to present even the most screwed-up scenarios as normal, even "based" as some would call them, to turn even the most twisted ideas and beliefs into Chad ideas. The format is a flexible caricature that one can adopt for any needs imaginable by making your own position look superior – simply because Chad has it – and making the opponent look weak and inferior like a Grayon, a Soyjak or any other belittling Wojak character. Why argue with anything when a simple "yes" and depicting yourself as a Chad is more than enough to undermine any well-built position?

Yes Chad introduced and/or popularized a number Wojak characters like Trad Girl and Daddy's Girl which memers gladly adopted as mouthpieces for a variety of archetypes. With Yes Chad, Wojaks slipped 4chan's grasp for good, as Facebook became a dominant force in Wojak-related memery in the second half of 2019. Facebook's worldwide popularity meant that meme communities outside of the US, often critical of the present Western sociopolitical climate, had a large influence on the platform, and memes what would be deemed "politically incorrect" by Reddit or Twitter standards had the power to garner thousands of reactions and shares. Yes Chad was something that could never have taken off in heavily moderated communities like /r/dankmemes, but Facebook gave it wings, with Twitter Groypers also helping the early spread of the format.

While the introduction of Trad Girl did make quite a stir, the newly introduced character did not really change the base formula – instead of Chad saying "yes," sometimes it was Trad Girl, or both of them together. The game did not really change until Doomer Girl exploded on Facebook in early January 2020, bringing much-needed variety and becoming an important chapter in the history of the Wojak Comics. The relationships between the characters grew more intricate, and the format spawning both wholesome and ironic variations. Also, it was around then when the growing similarity between Wojak Comics and Rage Comics became evident to many online.

Almost at the same time in March 2020, two more major Wojak Comics formats joined the game: Dick Flattening and Printer Go Brrr. Printer Go Brrr, spawned by the federal reserve response to the 2020 Stock Market Crash, inherited Yes Chad's patented formula, slightly adjusting it into "you can be angry all you want, I'm just gonna enjoy doing my thing." Similarly, the Dick Flattening meme explored a new emasculating punchline while preserving the single-pane format. This time it was Twitter and Instagram who spawned the formats, once again showing that Wojaks had long since outgrown their 4chan home.

Finally, three more recent formats deserve a mention: Soyjak Fans vs. Chad Fans builds on Yes Chad's concept of owning up to things and enjoying something despite its drawbacks, What's Your Sign? does nearly the opposing by making fun of other people's beliefs (usually ironically) and Wow This Is Your Room? works with the Doomer Girl and Doomer format in a different way by making the background, rather than the conversation, the punchline of the meme.

Love them or hate them, one has to admit that Wojak Comics struck a chord by providing an easy way to mock or defend nearly anything in a way that is extremely hard to counter. Wojak Comics' power of "haha you dumb me smart" is akin to the power of NO U and Ok Boomer: it's way too simplistic to overcome with words. It makes fun of complicated arguments by caricaturing them before they can even be made, and there's not much that can be said in response to an emphatic "yes."