Neil deGrasse Tyson Reaction

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About

Neil deGrasse Tyson Reaction is a rage comic character and reaction face of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson making a defensive gesture. The character image is sometimes associated with the catchphrase "Watch out guys, we're dealing with a badass over here" that is used to mock arrogant and boastful statements made by Internet users.

Origin

The outline drawing was based on a still image from an interview with Tyson by the online knowledge forum Big Think^[4] on living and longevity (shown below), which was uploaded to YouTube on June 3rd, 2011. The non-plussed reaction occurred when Tyson explained how Sir Isaac Newton invented calculus before his 26th birthday.

An animated GIF of the reaction was submitted to the marijuana enthusiast r/trees^[5] subreddit in a post titled "when asked if i smoke weed often" on August 25th, 2011 (shown below, left). User Hippopoptimus_Prime replied to the thread with a rage comic version of the face (shown below, right).

Spread

Most examples of Neil deGrasse reaction comics are intended to poke fun at self-gratuitous comments, status updates or photos found on social networking sites. On October 23rd, 2011, Redditor Onlyhereforthelaughs submitted a rage comic featuring the Tyson rage face to the /r/f7u12 subreddit.^[6] On October 25th, Redditor GiggleAtTheGoatse uploaded a screen capture of a Facebook status update that read "Smokin Weed" accompanied by the Tyson rage face and the caption "Watch out guys, we're dealing with a badass over here." An updated rage face with the "Watch out, we got a badass over here" caption was uploaded by Redditor fairlydeadfellow^[3] on November 7th.

Various Examples

Ay Si Ay Si

In January of 2012, image macros featuring the Neil deGrasse Tyson rage comic illustration began circulating on the Spanish-speaking web, often captioned with the phrase “Ay si ay si” (“Oh yes oh yes” in English) conveying a patronizing and sarcastic tone. On January 18th, a Meme Generator^[7] page for “Ay Si” was created and a Facebook page titled “Ay si, ay si” was launched, gaining upwards of 580 items and 150,000 likes in the next 13 months respectively. On March 23rd, a Quickmeme^[8] page titled “Ay Si! Ay Si!” was created.

On December 23rd, the Spanish-language rage comic blog Cuánto Cabrón^[11] posted a photograph (shown above) of a sign with the message “Ay si, ay si / El bar del meme” (“Oh yea oh yes / Meme’s Bar” in English). Within the next two months, the post received over 3,400 up votes and 490 Facebook likes. Additional examples can be found on the microblogging and social networking site Tumblr under the tag “#ay si.”^[10]