Epic Fail Guy (2006)

added May 27, 2009 at 06:11PM UTC

21 Comments
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Origin

In late 2006, stick-figure comics depicting a character who is bound to fail at everything he does started to appear on 4chan.

The Character soon became known as “Epic Fail Guy.”

On September 30th, 2006, a thread was posted in which “Epic Fail Guy” found a Guy Fawkes mask similar to the one in the movie V for Vendetta in a garbage bin.

From this point onward, many more Epic Fail Guy threads would appear on /b/ depicting him both with and without the Guy Fawkes mask. Exactly why EFG wore the mask is unknown, but Anonymous’s preference for the mask seems to have grown directly from this meme. As time went on, Epic Fail Guy began to appear almost exclusively wearing the mask.

Epic Fail Guy on Youtube

On October 15th, 2006, Youtube user Chainsaw09 posted the video “Epic Fail Guy on HW lan.”

Through the various EFG threads, EFG became something of a beloved 4chan folklore figure. By 2008, a thread appeared in which EFG travels through time, explaining that he has ALWAYS had the mask, in true 4chan revisionist tradition.

Relevance to Chanology

By the time Project Chanology rolled around in January of 2008, Anonymous chose to show up in meatspace wearing the Guy Fawkes masks popularized by V for Vendetta not out of tribute to the movie, but as a way of visually telling Scientology they were an EPIC FAIL.
See Anonymous for more information.

Google Insights for Search shows that although Epic Fail Guy predates Project Chanology, interest in Epic Fail Guy peaked at the same time as Chanology’s peak. Epic Fail Guy also seems to be most popular in Finland.

Epic Get Guy?

Due to 4chan’s numbering system utilized for tracking posts, Anonymous has had a long tradition of making a game out of the reply system. When the number begins to approach any significant hallmark (such as post ending in 000,000) an Anon will attempt to claim the post, as can be seen below.

In the picture above, Epic Fail Guy would have succeeded in his GET, if not for the sake of exclaiming “57M GET” when what he meant to say was “56M GET.”

In the next screen grab, we see the thread in which Epic Fail Guy manoeuvred a successful GET for a post ending in 5.

Given the 1 in 10 chance, this is not really Epic. There is very little search traffic to reflect any genuine interest in “Epic Get Guy” outside of the historical recount of the character and GET games. Anonymous decided to commonly agree in renaming the character “Epic GET Guy,” and Dramatica followed suit.

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21 Comments

Tylord14
May 27, 2009 at 11:17PM UTC , Tylord14 wrote:

hasnt the v for vendetta mask become like…the official sign of 4chan or something? in a lot of things i see 4chan mentioned i see that mask

Pyroco101
May 27, 2009 at 11:45PM UTC , Pyroco101 wrote:

nope, its actually a symbol for anonymous people, and since you can post on 4chan anonymously, i can see where you can get the connection

Chris Menning
May 28, 2009 at 08:54AM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

You’re both about half right.
Epic Fail Guy is the meme from which the V for Vendetta mask rose to popularity among 4-Chan. When “Anonymous” collectively came together for Project Chanology, that was when the mask really became the symbol of Anonymous, although I would’t go so far as to call it the symbol for all anonymous people.

Lord Jebe
May 28, 2009 at 08:28PM UTC , Lord Jebe wrote:

Epic Fail Guy and Anon are two different memes, but the mask can be connected to both of them. But EFG was the original wielder of the mask, Anon began to use it IRL.

Jamie Dubs
May 29, 2009 at 01:02AM UTC , Jamie Dubs wrote:

Entry could use some srs explanation about the Anonymous/Chanology protest ‘connection’.

  • any theories about why the Guy Fawkes mask… is it just V for Vendetta?
  • Any ideas on approx date of origin?
GodlyMoodr
May 30, 2009 at 06:36AM UTC , GodlyMoodr wrote:

There’s not exact date of origin, but the year is 2006. The thing with EFG though, there was ’the" original EFG, and then there were the imitators. The original EFG stopped posting EFG threads around 40-60 million posts.

The original EFG had some distinct characteristics. First off, the image file was the same name for all the images. Second, unless for a specific reason, such as a big scene being depicted, the images were all the same image size. Third, art style. You could tell by the way the image was drawn it was done by the original EFG.

The two images posted by Lord Jebe are not of the original EFG. I’ll post one of an example of the original EFG.

But the spirit of course of EFG has always been that of failure. Minus the mask there has been no connection between EFG and Project Chanology, etc.

GodlyMoodr
May 30, 2009 at 06:38AM UTC , GodlyMoodr wrote:

Also I for some reason forgot to mention two different forms of EFG, with his mask, and with out.

Lord Jebe
Jun 01, 2009 at 10:26PM UTC , Lord Jebe wrote:

GodlyMoodr:
Happen to have a pic of EFG without the mask?

Chris Menning
Jun 04, 2009 at 10:34PM UTC , Chris Menning wrote:

Researched, updated, fact-checked, and confirmed :)

Mryoyoyo5
Jun 26, 2009 at 09:29PM UTC , Mryoyoyo5 wrote:

Anybody know what board EFG hangs out in?

34GET
Aug 24, 2009 at 03:52AM UTC , 34GET wrote:

to mrmymyroo5,
i usually see him in /b/.

as for the google interest thing, that isn’t relevant in /b/. people use him alot. i know i do. he is still pretty relevant

Jack Smack
Aug 25, 2009 at 06:33PM UTC , Jack Smack wrote:

I always thought the epic fail guy’s mask was completely based off VFV.

Epic Fail Guy
Sep 02, 2009 at 01:48AM UTC , Epic Fail Guy wrote:

Does this mean I’m a awesome meme?

Jostin Asuncion
Sep 12, 2009 at 10:40PM UTC , Jostin Asuncion wrote:

Shouldn’t EFG be sub-memed under Fail? It seems appropriate.

Jest
Sep 12, 2009 at 11:16PM UTC , Jest wrote:

Nah, Epic Fail guy is a completely different entity. The uses aren’t really even that similar.

Jostin Asuncion
Sep 12, 2009 at 11:19PM UTC , Jostin Asuncion wrote:

Meh… Guess you’re right. But whatever, EFG is still epic anyways. It’s in his name, for crying out loud!

Osbor
Nov 03, 2009 at 02:45AM UTC , Osbor wrote:

There seems to be a crucial offshoot of EFG missing here; drawhores!

I personally know the original EFG, and while he doesn’t practice it very often any more, he started this concept that would later become drawhoring.

it requires its own article, and maybe a “know your meme” video, but it’s basically an interactive comic book. The author and artist depicts their character doing certain things (usually comical or erotic in nature) and the audience responds to it, usually changing events in some way.

i often equate it to a stage performance.

Hector Hessy
Nov 06, 2009 at 09:10PM UTC , Hector Hessy wrote:

i don’t even think EFG is real anymore..
damn newfags.

I_Am_A_Rock
Dec 04, 2009 at 12:10AM UTC , I_Am_A_Rock wrote:

Hope you guys like the pic I found! Took me a while to search for it!

kikinak
Dec 11, 2009 at 08:09PM UTC , kikinak wrote:

i was lurking /b/ and found the COMO thread while it was still happening so i capped it and posted. i cant believe the combo didnt get broken

3picf4ilguy
Feb 24, 2010 at 02:02AM UTC , 3picf4ilguy wrote:

My favorite meme

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