Assad Must Go

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About

Assad Must Go, also known as the Assad Curse, refers to a four-panel, exploitable meme template that uses an image of Syrian dictator and President Bashar al-Assad and another interchangeable political figure who chants, "Assad Must Go." Assad then responds to the imagined banter with, "Who Must Go?," prompting a response from the secondary character that makes Assad laugh. Primarily written in Impact font, the template was created in 2016 on 4chan's /pol/ board, inspired by a quote from former British Prime Minister David Cameron. It spread in usage on both Twitter and Reddit. In December 2024, Bashar al-Assad's regime fell to rebel forces after a two-week offensive. The event spawned Assad Must Go memes on social media, which joked about Assad actually going.

Origin

As a precursor, the image of Assad touching his ear originates from December 2010, captured by Reuters and first reposted by Israeli news outlet Y Net News.^[1] The image of Assad laughing comes from July 2008, originally shot by photography agency AFP.^[2]

The phrase "Assad Must Go" was used in politics as early as 2011, popularized by former U.S. President Barack Obama, who was quoted saying it in August of that year in response to accounts of Assad "torturing and slaughtering" his own people.^[3] In 2015, the discourse surrounding the phrase picked up again when Obama addressed the United Nations in September and reiterated it.^[4]

Other world leaders joined the trend, like former British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was also quoted saying it in 2015 at the UN assembly.^[5] This utterance from Cameron inspired the first iteration of the Assad Must Go template. However, before the template's creation, on May 6th, 2016, Twitter^[8] user iadtawil posted an image that detailed the "'Assad must go' Curse," being the first image macro online to coin the phrase. The meme earned over 250 likes in five years (shown below).

Although the meme most likely originated on 4chan, the earliest, accessible version was reposted to Twitter on June 24th, 2016, by the Twitter^[6] account of Polish politician Krzysztof Bosak. Bosak's tweet received 50 likes over five years.

The image's earliest known use on 4chan is evident in a /pol/^[7] messageboard thread, uploaded on June 26th, 2016. The meme shows Cameron saying, "Assad Must Go," only to make Assad laugh, concerning Cameron resigning from Prime Minister in 2016 (shown below).

Spread

Going into 2016, more iterations about other political figures emerged online like ones including Hillary Clinton, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Senator John McCain. Although the exact origin of these iterations is unknown, a long-form image of them was uploaded to an Australian blog^[9] on November 11th, 2016 (shown below).

The template spread in the years following, specifically taking off on Reddit's /r/SyrianCirclejerkWar. For instance, on September 10th, 2019, a meme was shared by Redditor^[10] alah123 about former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
John Bolton, receiving over 800 upvotes in two years (shown below).

On October 19th, 2020, Redditor^[11] Bugnio created a variation of the template that edited the order of the statements, reading "Who must stay?" and "Assad must stay." The meme showed Evo Morales, the former President of Bolivia, and received over 900 upvotes in two years (shown below).

2024 Resurgence Following The Fall Of Assad's Regime

On December 8th, 2024, Bashar al-Assad's regime fell to rebel forces after a two-week-long military campaign, ending Assad's 50-year reign in Syria.^[12] During the offensive, on November 29th, Redditor^[13] Late-Nectarine4282 shared an Assad Must Go meme to the subreddit /r/NonCredibleDefense, gaining over 2,300 upvotes in nine days (shown below).

Similar posts and memes surfaced on Twitter^[14] / X during the same timeframe.