Zoomerification

Submission 48,774

Part of a series on Bird's Nest Haircut / Broccoli Haircut / Zoomer Perm. [View Related Entries]

About

Zoomerification is a meme trend that involves editing images of people and characters by giving them a Zoomer Perm or other stereotypical Gen Z haircut and humorously editing their dialogue so that it includes a large number of Gen Z slang words and expressions, such as "deadass," "fr fr," "bussin" and "no cap." First popularized on 4chan in April 2022, the format achieved virality in early June that year.

Origin

On May 11th, 2021, an anonymous 4chan^[1] user made a thread in which he posted a photograph of a teenager with a Broccoli Hair haircut (also referred to as Zoomer Perm and Mulatto Perm), listing several slang expressions associated with Gen Z (shown below). The post received viral spread online, with its screenshot being widely shared in the following months.^[2] This image also provided the Zoomer Perm exploitable.

The thread spawned a 4chan trend of mocking Generation Z by posting photographs of teenagers with the Zoomer Perm, as well as Wojaks and Pepes with the broccoli haircut, combined with sentences consisting primarily of Gen Z slang (example^[3] shown below, left). On October 5th, 2021, a user made a post in /tv/^[4] in which they gave The Irishman character Frank Sheeran the haircut, with other users replying with The Irishman lines laden with Gen Z slang (shown below, right). On October 10th, a user edited an image of Adolf Hitler in the same fashion, posting it to /pol/.^[5]

Prior to November 17th, 2021, an unknown Twitter user posted the first such meme to Twitter, editing a photograph of a judge (shown below, left). The image was later reposted to iFunny^[6] and 4chan.^[7]

Multiple Zoomerification posts were made on 4chan in February 2022,^[8]^[9] however, the trend did not become massive until early April 2022 when an anonymous user posted an edited image of Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men combined with Gen Z dialogue to /tv/^[10] (shown below, right).

Spread

In the thread, multiple users posted^[11]^[12] similar edits combined with Gen Z dialogue (example shown below, left). On April 13th, a user made another /tv/ thread,^[13] posting an edit of Don Draper from Mad Men(shown below, center), with one user replying,^[14] "lucky strike, it's bussin." Within one hour, Twitter^[15] user @hereliesthighs reposted the image with the joke, with the tweet gaining over 7,300 retweets and 80,200 likes in two months (shown below, right).

On April 14th, 2022, Twitter^[16] user based schizo (@tulpapilled) posted an edit of a still image from the business card scene in the 2000 film American Psycho. The tweet (shown below) gained over 860 retweets and 9,600 likes in two months.

The meme did not spawn a major trend until mid-May 2022, when on May 15th, Redditor^[17] GirlsInMerzbowShirts posted an edited frame from the music video for Tears for Fears' song "Mad World," accompanied by an edited lyric from the song, "I find it kinda bussin', I find it kinda cap." The post (shown below, left) gained over 870 upvotes in three weeks. Additionally, Redditor^[18] JoCrude commented with another altered lyric, writing, "The dreams in which I'm dying are the ones that lowkey slap." The comment gained over 420 upvotes.

On May 20th, 2022, Twitter^[19] user @LeaMaric copied GirlsInMerzbowShirts and JoCrude's post and comment in a tweet that gained over 7,000 retweets and 62,500 likes in two weeks (shown below, right).

In the following days, @LeaMaric's post was widely reposted. For example, on May 22nd, Instagram^[20] user weteggs reposted the image, gaining over 6,300 likes in two weeks.

Starting on May 26th, Instagram user rad_milk posted a series of memes in which various people and characters were given Zoomer Perm and their catchphrases humorously altered with Gen Z slang. For example, on May 26th, rad_milk posted^[21] such edit of Jim Halpert from The Office that gained over 6,000 likes in 10 days (shown below, left). On May 27th, rad_milk posted^[22] an edit of Morpheus from The Matrix, which was reposted by numerous Instagram,^[23] Facebook and Twitter^[24] accounts in the following week (shown below, right).

In early June 2022, the trend gained virality online, initially on Instagram, as multiple meme pages posted Zoomerificiation edits, including viral versions by trashcanpaul,^[25] adam.the.creator^[26] and sonny5ideup.^[27]

Wave Check

Waves Hairstyle Photoshops, also known as Wave Check and Waves and Air Pods, refer to digitally edited images in which the subject has a curly hairstyle known as "waves" superimposed over their original hair. Often paired with photoshopped AirPods, the edits are considered a development of the AirPod Flexing meme.