Madam Kim (김여사)

About

“Madam Kim” (김여사) is a S. Korean photo meme that first appeared across popular discussion boards (humor university, DCinside) in 2007 and became quite famous throughout much of 2008. The series consists of photographs depicting bizarre car accidents and humorous captions describing Madam Kim’s blunders; click here to see the most popular collection of Madam Kim series.

Madam Kim = Anonymous + Traffic Fail

The term borrows its origin from a running joke that middle-aged housewives (also known as “ajoom-mas”) are more prone to making poor decisions on the road. While the joke is sometimes considered sexist or offensive on the web, the term “Madam Kim” is used to describe any reckless/negligent driver in real life. According to DCinside’s cyberaddict dictionary, Madam Kim refers to:

1) Middle-aged ladies who drive poorly on the road or in parking lot (pejorative).
2) A driver who frequently violates traffic signals and obstructs traffic flow.

Foreign Editions

Once “Madam Kim” gained popularity across the web, foreign editions of “Madam Kim” have also emerged in 2008. Some of them can be found under the photos in KYM’s FAIL entry.

Links

*Image captions below are translations of original thread posts on DCinside database.