Wojak

About

Feels Guy, also known as Wojak, is an MS Paint illustration of a bald man with a sad expression on his face. It is often used as a reaction image to represent feelings such as melancholy, regret or loneliness. Wojak memes as a genre have grown to include various remixes and edits to the character -- as of February 2023, a search for "wojak" on this site generates over 200 entries, representing the wide range and variety of wojaks that have become popular online.

Origin

The exact origin of the Wojak illustration is unknown. On December 16th, 2009, the earliest known I Wish I Was at Home MS Paint comic was submitted to the internet humor site Sad and Useless,^[9] which features the Wojak character standing in a corner at a party (shown below).

According to "ask me anything" (AMA) thread on Reddit^[1] by a user claiming to be Krautchan user Wojak, the bald man illustration was originally discovered on the imageboard Vichan with the filename "twarz.jpg." The image was subsequently popularized as a reaction image after Wojak submitted it to the German language image board Krautchan, with the earliest archived post appearing on April 26th, 2010 (shown below).

Soon after, the picture became known as “Wojak’s face” and “ciepła twarz” (“warm face”). The image spread to other international image boards, including the Italian Pastachan^[3] and the Russian Dobrochan.

In Polish, "wojak" translates (more or less) to "warrior" in English. The root of the word is "woj-," and the diminutive "-k"suffix may indicate a certain childishness or physical smallness.^[10]

Spread

On February 2nd, 2012, Redditor Voyack submitted an AMA to the /r/datfeel^[2] subreddit, claiming to be Wojack from Krautchan. On October 3rd, 2013, the news site Bustle^[6] published an article about the origins of the Feels Guy. On November 19th, a Facebook^[8] page titled "Feels Guy" was launched, which gained over 6,400 likes in the next two years. On May 22nd, YouTuber ReluctantMisc uploaded an animated video of Wojak titled "A day in the life of 'that feel when' guy" (shown below).

On April 2nd, 2014, a page for "Feels Guy" was created on the Internet culture wiki Encyclopedia Dramatica.^[5] On March 14th, 2015, the /r/Wojak^[7] subreddit was launched for photoshopped variations of the Feels Guy image.

Wojak Index

Any attempt to describe or classify a cultural phenomenon as complex as Wojak will be imperfect and incomplete. This index is structured around the "Related entries" and "sub-entries" organization that already exists among Wojak-related entries on Know Your Meme. As such, the major distinctions it draws are chronological and character/format based, rather than stylistic or community-of-origin based. This index roughly follows the "four phases" described in the following section, while also trying to draw attention to important distinctions within categories (such as soy and non-soy, or Wojak Comics involving characters like Trad Girl versus those which do not). The intent is to offer a navigable, bird's-eye view of Wojak evolutions over the years, not the final word on how Wojaks can or should be classified.

Wojaklore Traditions

Going into the late 2010s, a variety of Wojak variations emerged. In the index in the previous section, Know Your Meme's entries describing these evolutions of Wojaklore are organized according to a genre-based and roughly chronological scheme. Significant overlap between different types and periods of Wojak (as well as other meme traditions) has always colored the meme's circulation, but in the broadest and most general outlines, a kind of evolution is legible in Know Your Meme's Wojak record, comprising roughly four phases between the early 2010s and early 2020s.

In the first and earliest phase, Wojak memes include formats such as "I Wish I Was At Home (They Don't Know),” in which the character is used (largely but not exclusively on 4chan) as a kind of collective self-portrait of the very-online posters. In these formats, the Wojak character is usually shown unmodified and his "feels" are emphasized.

This phase of Wojakposting slides into a second mid-to-late 2010s period which saw posters create a variety of characters by modifying the Wojak image and renaming it either by attaching another word to the front, as in "NPC Wojak,” or using the -jak suffix, as in Soyjak These Wojaks seem to reflect varying emotional states and character archetypes.

Within this posting, a divide emerges between Soyjak-centric memes which use the Soyjak variant of the Wojak character to mock soyboys, and types of memes which bring the Wojak character into other non-soy contexts. To some extent, this is a difference between communities of production and circulation, with venues like Soyjak.party emerging as centers of Soyjak posting. Soy formats tend to use Soyjak to represent individuals and viewpoints that are in the out-group rather than the in-group of online discussion.^[12]

Slightly later, although with much overlap, a third variety of Wojakposting emerges. Oomer Wojaks followed the same principle of modifying the Wojak image while changing the name to reflect certain archetypes within the broader mass of posters. The -oomer wojaks are almost always male and many of them reflect contrasting philosophical, generational or spiritual positions.

Wojak Comics emerged around 2020, and saw the broad popularization of explicitly female Wojak characters. They linked various Wojak modifications with other famous meme characters, such as Yes Chad.

Various Examples

I Know That Feel Bro

“I Know That Feel Bro” (also known as “to uczucie” or “to uczócie”) is an Internet slang expression used to convey empathy towards or agree with someone else’s feeling or opinion. The expression, which roughly means “I feel you, bro,” is typically accompanied by a image of two Wojak embracing each other expressionlessly.

I Wish I Was At Home

I Wish I Was At Home (Playing Videogames) is an exploitable comic series featuring Wojak in which the subject is depicted as anxious and uncomfortable at parties and other social situations.

Country Feels

Country Feels is a series of customized illustrations featuring Wojak sitting at a computer desk surrounded by various stereotypes associated with a particular country or region. Many of the images bear similarities to the “How People View Me” two-pane cartoons.

Wojak Comics

Wojak Comics to a series of memes depicting simple interactions between various Wojak characters. Combining elements of comics and Wojak memes, the format was spawned by the Yes Chad meme format in August 2019 and has since grown into a variety of similar comic formats.

Smug Wojak

Smug Wojak refers to a drawing of a bald man with a smug expression on his face that resembles Wojak, inspired by the Smug Frog images. Appearing on /r9k/ and [s4s] in early August 2014, Smug Wojak is normally used to express positive feelings. It also spawned some derivatives, listed on the [s4s] wiki.^[4]

Relation with Pepe the Frog

In the early 2010s, Wojak was related with the character Pepe the Frog, mainly with the Sad Frog variant due their expression of sad emotions. In middle November 2014, Wojak started being paired with Smug Frog on a series of comics named Poo Poo Pee Pee, in which Pepe commits various unethical acts towards Wojak, typically involving urine or feces, and created as a reaction towards the usage of Pepe’s likeness in various mainstream social media sites.

Search Interest

External References