Man With Peas In Mouth / Peas'd To Meet You

Submission 9,060

Part of a series on Cursed Images. [View Related Entries]

About

Man With Peas In Mouth, also known as Peas'd To Meet You or Peajak, refers to a photograph of a man with peas all over his face in his mouth, nose and eyes, appearing to be dead. The photo was originally posted to Instagram in late 2021 by photographer Jeff Mermelstein. Soon after, it gained memetic usage mostly due to its creepy and cursed nature. Also, the image was turned into a Wojak in 2022.

Origin

On September 25th, 2021, American artist and photographer Jeff Mermelstein posted a photo to Instagram^[1] that showed himself lying down on a wood floor with peas covering his face, coming put of his open mouth, nose and eyes (shown below). The post received roughly 6,600 likes in two years. The photo was part of a series of food-related self portraits on Mermelstein's Instagram.^[2]^[3]

On October 1st, 2021, iFunnier^[4] @Anticksss posted the first discovered meme to use the image, following the I Meet Someone template, additionally inserting the catchphrase "I am peased to meet them." The post gained over 90 smiles in two years (shown below).

Spread

Soon after, the image was used on Twitter^[5] and continued to gain usage on iFunny. For instance, on November 12th, 2021, iFunnier^[6] @Durkin captioned it, "The guy after eating 10lbs of peas without slowing down," earning roughly 2,200 smiles in two years (shown below, left). On December 28th, 2021, Twitter^[7] user @Sticklyart tweeted a painted rendition of the photo, gaining over 170 likes in two years (shown below, right).

Going into early 2022, the memes became more viral. For instance, on March 30th, 2022, iFunnier^[8] @theReply posted a new version of the "I Meet Someone" template, additionally including a segment about "the authorities" not finding enough evidence to "make the charges stick." The post gained roughly 18,500 smiles in one year (shown below). The meme was reposted to Instagram^[9] soon after. The original photo also went viral on Reddit's /r/hmmm^[10] in mid-2022.

On November 15th, 2022, iFunnier^[11] @Terrorism posted a Say the Line, Wojak meme that showed a so-called "Peajak" shooting peas into the mouth of a Soyjak who then became a Wojak version of the Man With Peas In Mouth. The post gained roughly 10,300 smiles in six months (shown below, left). On November 16th, it was posted to the /soy/^[12] board on Soyjak.party. The format gained new variations, such as in a post uploaded by iFunnier^[13] @MidQualityShitposting on January 25th, 2023, showing German Soyjaks saying, "Feed him das Krauten!" The post gained roughly 4,900 smiles in four months (shown below, right).

The original "Peajak" comic gained video iterations as well in which creators did voiceovers. For instance, on November 21st, 2022, YouTuber^[14] kerber.mp3 uploaded a video called, "SAY THE LINE, PEAJAK!!!" which gained roughly 10,900 views in six months (shown below).

Memetic usage also surfaced on TikTok.^[15]