Forever Alone

About

Forever Alone is an exploitable rage comic character that is used to express loneliness and disappointment with life. Creators of this variety of rage comic occasionally alter one word or both of the words “forever alone” for a more humorous effect (For example, Forever A Scone). On Memegenerator, Forever Alone is on the God Tier.^[1]

Origin

Forever Alone is considered one of the first major spin-off characters to evolve out of the popular Rage Guy comic series, which first sprang up on 4chan in 2009. According to various sources, the original comic was uploaded in a thread titled “April Fools” by FunnyJunk user Azuul on May 28th, 2010.

Spread

Circa early June 2010, another instance featuring a bachelor salaryman was posted on 4chan, further fueling the spread of the meme across online humor hubsites. The birth of series also coincided with the rise in popularity of rage comics and “Socially Awkward Penguin” jokes and Forever Alone immediately struck a chord on Reddit, with the earliest thread “Prom FFFUUUU”^[14] posted by redditor L_E_G_E_N_D on August 5th, 2010.

By September 2010, there were over 23,000 image results for “Forever Alone” on FunnyJunk^[3] and over 50,000 on Tumblr.^[4] On September 11th, 2010, single topic blog Forever Alone Comics^[19] was launched to curate the growing collection of four-pane comics.

The blog and media coverage of “Forever Alone” phenomenon began in early October 2010, receiving mentions from blogs like Geekosystem^[5], Memebase^[15] and Uproxx^[16]. Meanwhile, the meaning of term “Forever Alone” gradually expanded from a rage comic reference to the more general state of being alone. On Wikipedia, a quick search of the keyword “Forever Alone” redirects the reader to its article on the subject of involuntary celibacy.^[17]

Notable Examples

In the beginning, most rage comics were illustrated with the the basic four-pane template, but later grew into other formats like vertical comic strips, multi-pane comics with dialogues and even animated GIFs.

Rage Comics

Vertical Strips

Advice Animal

An Advice Animal-style image macro series dubbed “Forever Alone” emerged on macro generator sites Memegenerator^[1] and Quickmeme^[20] sometime between December 2010 and January 2011.

Animated GIF

Forever Alone Flash Mob

On March 22nd, 2011, internet users on 4chan and Reddit began plotting an “involuntary” flash mob event by creating fake profiles on the dating site OKCupid and setting up a false rendezvous for single males at the Times Square, New York City at 7:30pm on May 13th, 2011.^[6] According to Urlesque’s report^[7], flyers with details of the action plan were posted in the forums and blogs like The Mainboard^[8], NYMag^[9], Social Spew^[10], Skim Online Forums^[11] and Dating Service Reporter^[12].

The sudden influx of heavy traffic put a heavy strain on Earthcam’s servers, resulting in a streaming outage for viewers from 7 p.m. to 7:40 p.m. The few with access to the live stream took and uploaded screenshots of many men in suits loitering at meeting place via Tumblr and 4chan. At one point, an Anonymous guest appeared in the Earthcam feed with a Forever Alone poster on the side of a phone booth.

   

Know Your Meme’s senior reporter Don visited the site and interviewed one of the gentlemen who had been tricked into the OKCupid prank.

Sony Ericsson Ad Campaign

In November 2011, Sony Ericsson launched a series of video advertisements prominently featuring the character of Forever Alone for its Xperiathon campaign dubbed “The Loneliest Marathon in the World.”^[18]

Search Interest

External References

^[14] Reddit – Prom FFFFFUUUUUUUUU

^[15] Memebase – Results for Forever Alone

^[16] Uproxx – Meme Watch: Forever Alone

^[17] Wikipedia – Involuntary celibacy

^[18] YouTube – Xperiathon’s Channel

^[19] ForeverAloneComics – Forever Alone Website

^[20] Quickmeme – Forever Alone