Alberto Barbosa

About

Alberto Barbosa is a name commonly used to represent a nondescript man from Portugal among users on 4chan's /int/ (international) board. The phrase "t. Alberto Barbosa" is often placed alongside a photoshopped illustration of an African man from the Age of Empires II expansion The African Kingdoms with a Portuguese flag on his turban, mocking the inclusion of Portugal in the game. Additionally, the character is often referenced in the context of We Wuz Kings jokes on the image board.

Origin

On November 5th, 2015, The African Kingdoms expansion for the real-time strategy game Age of Empires II was released. On 4chan, many users on the /int/ board criticized the expansion for including the country Portugal and began posting the illustration of an African man from the game's cover art wearing a turban with the Portuguese flag photoshopped on the front along with the phrase "t. Alberto Barbosa" (shown below). The abbreviation "t." represents the parting phrase "regards."

Spread

On December 14th, an anonymous 4chan user submitted an Alberto Barbosa thread to /int/,^[4] to which other users spammed the phrase "t. Alberto Barbosa" in comment replies (shown below).

On December 15th, Redditor /pol/ack submitted a screenshot of a 4chan post complaining about the "t. Alberto Barbosa" meme to /r/4chan^[1] (shown below).

The following day, the /r/albertobarbosa^[3] subreddit was launched for discussions about the in-joke. On December 19th, Redditor cammyfawkes submitted a post asking about the meme to the /r/albertobarbosa,^[2] to which Redditor smretsnikov cited its origins on /int/. On December 29th, 2015, YouTuber Incognito Walröss submitted a video featuring the African king illustration with a man espousing the Black Egyptian Hypothesis in the background (shown below).

My Husband Named Our Son Alberto Barbosa Reddit Story

On August 27th, 2017, Redditor /u/ashamedofmyhusband posted to the /r/offmychest subreddit.^[5] The caption of the post read, "My husband secretly named our son after a meme and I hate him for it," and it gathered over 600 upvotes in five years (seen below).

On December 26th, 2022, a screenshot of the post was uploaded to the Twitter page "the parody reddit," @GoodReddit,^[6] where it gathered over 50,000 likes in a day.

Search Interest

External References