Stefán Karl Stefánsson / Robbie Rotten

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About

Robbie Rotten was the primary antagonist in the Nick Jr. children's television series LazyTown; played by the late Icelandic film and stage actor Stefán Karl Stefánsson. The character is known for being a lazy man who constantly schemes to undermine the influence of the protagonists Stephanie and Sportacus.

Origin

In August 2004, LazyTown was first broadcast on the Nick Jr. block on the Nickelodeon television channel. In the show, Robbie is depicted as the primary antagonist, attempting to make everyone lazy so that he may have peace and quiet. He is usually able to succeed for a while, using various disguises and inventions to trick the citizens and sabotage Sportacus.

Spread

On May 25th, 2009, a page for Robbie Rotten was created on the LazyTown Wiki.^[8] On October 8th, the Villains Wiki^[9] added a page for the LazyTown character. On February 28th, 2014, the /r/RobbieRotten^[1] subreddit was created for discussions about the character. On October 25th, 2016, the Robbie Rotten Memes Facebook page was created^[7], which received more than 38,100 likes over the next year. On December 1st, CollegeHumor^[10] published a listicle titled "15 Robbie Rotten Memes You'll Want to Snatch Up With a Net." On January 1st, 2017, /r/dankmemes moderator lets_get_hyyer revealed that Robbie Rotten had become the subreddit's "Meme of the Year." Prior to being archived, the announcement gained over 28,700 points (79% upvoted) and 1,100 comments.

Stefán Stefánsson's Illness

In late September 2016, Icelandic news media began reporting that actor Stefan Stefánsson was "seriously ill," and was in a hospital to remove a possibly malignant tumor. On October 10th, 2016, a GoFundMe^[2] page for the actor was created, revealing he had been diagnosed with cancer. That day, two actresses who played Stefanie on LazyTown released a video asking viewers to donate to the GoFundMe page (shown below). Within one month, the page reached $75,382 of its $80,000 goal.^[2]

On October 16th, 2016, Tumblr ^[21] user nicolas-px, one of the admins for the Lazy Town Memes Facebook page posted about the GoFundMe. The post recieved more than 23,000 notes in three years.

The following day, nicolas-px posted a message from Stefansson and his daughter, thanking them for their support. The post recieved more than 9,400 notes in three years (shown below).^[22]

2017 Cancer Diagnosis

On May 19th, 2017, Stefánsson's wife published an update on Facebook, revealing that two new metastases were discovered in Stefánsson's liver, suspecting that gallbladder cancer was the cause.^[4] Within 72 hours, the post garnered more than 10,000 reactions and 1,700 comments. The following day, the Lazy Town Memes reposted the news along with a link to Stefánsson's GoFundMe page (shown below).^[5] On May 21st, Redditor mariobros612 submitted a screenshot of the post to /r/dankmemes,^[6] where it gathered upwards of 6,500 points (95% upvoted) and 180 comments.

On June 21st of that year, it was revealed that Stefánsson had been diagnosed with stage 4 terminal cancer.^[11]

"The disease is now advanced, at Stage 4, and unfortunately its life expectancy is significantly reduced. Medication is not in sight when the disease is so far, experiments are being made with drugs and life-longing conventional and non-traditional therapies around the world, but the answers can not be received as yet. Conventional chemotherapy also does not deliver results that can be promised when this is happening,"
- Steinunn Ólína, Stefánsson's wife^[12]

Cancer Free Diagnosis

On August 11th, 2017, the Icelandic news site Ruv published an interview with Stefánsson, in which he revealed he was "free from the disease, the cancer."^[13]

On August 13th, the article reached the front page of /r/europe^[14], gathering upwards of 8,000 points (95% upvoted) and 320 comments in 24 hours. In the coming days, image macros celebrating the diagnosis reached the front page of the /r/dankmemes and /r/memeeconomy subreddits.

That day, the Lazy Town Memes Facebook page posted an update about the diagnosis, revealing that the cancer could still return and Stefánsson would need donations to handle medical costs (shown below).

2018 Cancer Diagnosis

On March 10th 2018, it was revealed that Stefánsson has been diagnosed with new metastases that cannot be surgically removed.^[15]

"Last Friday, we got it confirmed after a trip to Copenhagen in Jáeindaskan that there are new metastases in Stefán that can not be removed by surgery. Even though I knew for a long time that this day would come, it's a difficult turning point. There is no cure for this. Now he will have to undergo chemotherapy to try to prolong his life and we hope that this will go as well is possibly can, to improve how he feels and to prolong his life."
- Steinunn Ólína, Stefánsson's wife^[15]^[16]

A few minutes after her post, Stefánsson shared his statement regarding the diagnosis on his Twitter.

On April 2nd, 2018, the Lazy Town Meme Facebook page announced that Karl had deactivated his Twitter feed and was in the process of "slowly leaving Facebook," but sent a message to his fans to know that "he loves you and will never let you down" but that he would be focusing on extending his life and spending time with family (shown below).

Death

On August 21st, 2018, TMZ^[17] reported that a spokesperson for Stefánsson's family announced that he passed away earlier that day due to complications from cancer. That day, Redditor RektSkrubs submitted a screenshot of a post in Stefánsson's memory to /r/dankmemes, where it gathered upwards of 1,800 points (99% upvoted) and 300 comments within one hour (shown below).

YouTube Subscriber Count

On September 25th, 2018, Stefánsson's family uploaded a video to his YouTube channel showing Stefánsson having Robbie Rotten makeup applied to his face in honor of fans campaigning for his channel to reach one million subscribers (shown below).

The following day, the YouTube channel passed the one million subscriber mark. That day, a screenshot of the milestone was stickied on the front page of /r/dankmemes,^[18] where it gained over 81,000 points (86% upvoted) and 1,400 comments within 24 hours.

In the coming days, many posts containing image macros and photoshops celebrating the subscriber count were submitted to /r/dankmemes (shown below).

/r/Dankmemes 2018 Meme of the Year

On January 23rd, 2019, /r/dankmemes^[19] moderator Elfahbeht_soop posted an announcement that Stefánsson was voted "Meme of the Year 2018" by the subreddit. Within 24 hours, the post gained over 113,000 points (86% upvoted) and 1,600 comments.

For Honor Tribute

On August 22nd, 2018, the official Twitter feed for the fighting game For Honor posted a tweet honoring Stefansson's memory (shown below).

On February 7th, 2019, Redditor Bringers submitted a screencap of a statue in the game For Honor named "Number One," along with the description "In Memoriam – To our Numer One villain" (shown below). Within five days, the post gained over 31,500 points (96% upvoted) and 400 comments. On February 12th, an article about the statue was published on The Daily Dot.^[20]

We Are Number One

We Are Number One is a song that Robbie Rotten sings in the episode "Robbie's Dream Team". In the episode, Robbie orders three "villains" who have had no prior experience with actual villainous deeds, which sets the tone for the song. As of November 11th, 2016, the official music video has over 2.6 million views (shown below, top). Since Stefan Karl's cancer diagnosis, this song has seen a major increase in popularity, with popular Youtubers such as SiIvaGunner making parodies of it (shown below, bottom).

Following the influx of parody videos and the unexpected success of the GoFundMe page, Stefan Karl launched an event on Facebook. He and the supporting actors in the song performed a live-reenactment of We Are Number One on December 11th, 2016. Within 5 hours, the event gained over 7.5k likes and 184,000 views.^[3]

You Are A Pirate

You Are A Pirate is another song that Robbie sings, this time in the episode "Rottenbeard". Robbie Rotten disguises himself as a Pirate so that he may trick the town into becoming lazy, attempting to misguide them on their journey to search for an ancient stone that would describe the town's fate. The song's official music video has gained over 3.9 million views as of November 14th, 2016.