Who Wants Change? Who Wants to Change?

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About

Who Wants Change? Who Wants to Change? refers to a series of memes based on a 2012 webcomic by Brazilian artist Lute. In memes, the comic is typically used as an exploitable image macro to parody people's unwillingness to make sacrifices necessary to achieve their desired goal by changing the text in the original cartoon's word bubbles.

Origin

On June 21st, 2012, Brazilian magazine Hoje em Dia published a two-panel cartoon by Brazilian artist Lute (shown below).^[1] In the cartoon, a United Nations speaker asks the audience who wants to live in a better world, to which they enthusiastically raise hands. The speaker then asks who is willing to abandon unrestrained consumption, with the audience lowering their hands and averting their eyes. On June 25th, 2012, Lute posted the cartoon on his blog.^[2]

Who wants to live in a better and more harmonious world? Who is willing to abandon this model of unrestrained consumption to achieve this?

Between 2012 and 2015, the image was reposted online multiple times in various blogs and on websites.^[3]^[4] Translated versions of the comic were also created and posted as early as July 2012,^[5] with the original message gradually being simplified to "Who wants change? Who wants to change?" (examples shown below, left and center).^[6] On December 23rd, 2014, a translated version of the comic was posted to 9GAG^[7] where it gained over 39,600 points in six years (shown below, right).

On January 24th, 2015, change management blog Change Activation^[8] posted a remastered version of the cartoon including a two-panel image version and a GIF variant (shown below, left and right).

Spread

In 2015 and 2016, the remastered version of the image received viral spread online. For example, on October 26th, 2015, Learning in the Modern Workplace^[9] blog reposted the image. On June 19th, 2016, the image was then posted to 9GAG,^[10] where it gained over 28,800 points in five years, with a June 26th Twitter^[11] post by 9GAG gaining over 4,300 retweets and 4,200 likes in the same period.

On October 28th, 2015, Facebook^[12] page Techno Live Sets posted the earliest found humorous edit of the image, replacing the captions with "Who is DJ?" and "Who mixed with vinyl?" The post received over 11,000 reactions and 13,000 shares in five years (shown below).

Between 2015 and 2019, several additional viral edits of the image were posted online and circulated,^[13]^[14]^[15] including versions in which an extra panel was edited in (examples shown below).

The meme format did not receive viral spread until June 3rd, 2020, when Redditor poopoomcgoo1 posted an ironic version of the meme captioned "Who wants to shit? Who wants to wipe?" The post received over 41,300 upvotes in the /r/okbuddyretard^[16] subreddit in six months (shown below).

The post received viral spread, with a number of viral edits of the meme being posted online in the following months. For example, on June 4th, 2020, Redditor ExpendableToMe posted a version of the meme that gained over 1,600 upvotes in the /r/egg_irl^[17] subreddit (shown below, left). On August 30th, Redditor ShyChipT posted an edit that received over 6,300 upvotes in the /r/pyrocynical^[18] subreddit (shown below, right). On October 17th, iFunny^[19] user SufferingDave posted a Yee Yee Ass Haircut version of the meme that gained over 11,400 smiles in six months.

The meme format maintained moderate popularity online in late 2020 and early 2021.