Joelma Triste E Feliz

Submission 1,602

Part of a series on Brazil. [View Related Entries]

About

Joelma Triste E Feliz, or "Joelma sad and happy" in English, refers to an image macro and reaction image featuring two images of the Brazilian singer Joelma. One image shows Joelma with a sad face and the other has the Brazilian laughing. The image is paired with captions in Portuguese, similar to the Conflicted Steve Harvey meme, showing a person hiding their true intentions while pretending to the chill or sad about a situation. The meme gained popularity in September 2019 on Twitter.

Origin

On September 5th, 2019, Twitter^[1] user @AndrEduardoo posted the earliest image (seen below) of the Joelma triste e feliz meme. He added overlay text in Portuguese in front of the sad face, which translates to "oh my friend, it's a shame you can't go out today," and text in front of the laughing face, saying "Thank God, I just wanted to sleep."

The image behind the meme was captured from an interview the Brazilian singer did for a local TV show. Joelma did not know that she was participating in a Mother's Day tribute, and her daughter appeared on screen to give an emotional speech, leaving the singer with a surprised face. The moment (seen below) was shared on YouTube^[2] by RitmoCalypso on September 27th, 2019, garnering 61,300 views and 1,700 likes in four years.

Spread

As the image and video grew more popular, the format changed from the original image macro iteration, being more commonly used as a reaction image paired with captions. For example, Twitter^[3] user @sidnyprscott shared a clip of American actress Kristen Bell trying to interpret the meme. The video (seen below) garnered 413,000 views and 28,100 likes in three years.

Other popular examples of the meme include a GIF (seen below, left) posted on Tenor^[4] by @needyexplicit user on February 16th, 2021. Twitter^[5] user @sosparanoia used the meme to tweet about when parents get mad at their kids. The tweet (seen below, right) received 57,700 likes and 27,500 retweets in four years.