Socially Awkward Penguin
Part of a series on Advice Animals. [View Related Entries]
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About
Socially Awkward Penguin is an advice animal image macro series featuring a penguin lacking both social skills and self esteem. The text typically narrates uncomfortable life situations, highlighting an exceptionally clumsy or inelegant response.
Origin
The original image was taken by nature photographer George F. Mobley[1] and posted to illustrate a fact sheet on Adéli penguins for National Geographic’s Wild Animals site.[2] The Socially Awkward Penguin image macros began appearing on 4chan as early as May 2009, following the explosion of either series like Advice Dog and Courage Wolf. In an archived thread[16] from May 31st, 2009, a /b/ (random) user names Socially Awkward Penguin as an explanation of the term “advice animal.”
Spread
On August 30th, 2009, the single topic blog Fuck Yeah Socially Awkward Penguin[6] was created. That year, Socially Awkward Penguin was mentioned on several other 4chan boards including /co/[17] (comics and cartoons) and /a/[18] (anime and manga). The first Socially Awkward Penguin mention on Reddit took place in a comment thread[21] on September 25th, 2009. After the original poster, vanhookjosh, was seeking help for his anxiety, Redditor parttimehuman used the reference to reassure him that everyone has moments in life where they feel uncomfortable.
In July 2010, Buzzfeed[8] featured a series of Socially Awkward Penguin images, followed by Smosh[9] that November. The next month, a series of notable images was shared on internet culture blog Street Couch[20] and a Socially Awkward Penguin Android app[7] was published. The first Quickmeme[10] instance was generated in late December 2010.[11] The next year, the series was also featured on internet media blogs Topcultured[22], Runt of the Web[23], and Geekosystem.[24]
As of April 2012, over 32,000 people have liked the Facebook page[13] associated with the macro. It also has evolved into a popular hashtag on Tumblr[14] and Twitter[19], to collect posts about awkward life situations.
Jiffy Cabs Advertisement
Redditor Denying_Reality[25] posted a photo of a newspaper advertisement for Canadian taxi company Jiffy Cabs featuring Socially Awkward Penguin on November 3rd, 2011.[15] Memebase[26] users confirmed that the photo came from The Muse, a student newspaper from the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada.
Reverse Memes
Some Socially Awesome Penguin macros were created as direct reversals of Socially Awkward Penguin derivatives. For example, the image below shows an examples of Socially Awkward Penguin, a Socially Average Penguin and a Socially Awesome Penguin derivatives for the same social situation.
Hybrid
Socially Awkward Penguin often appears in image macros with its antithesis Socially Awesome Penguin. On May 12th, 2011, a “Socially Awesome Awkward Penguin” Quickmeme[14] page was created, featuring macros with half of the image portraying a successful social interaction and the other half describing a socially awkward interaction. As of April 16th, 2012, the Quickmeme page has received over 8,200 submissions.
Notable Examples
Search Interest
Search queries for Socially Awkward Penguin began in May 2009, the same month the earliest chanarchive thread took place.
External References
[1] National Geographic – George F. Mobley biography
[2] National Geographic – Adelie Penguin
[3] Meme Generator – Socially Awesome Penguin
[4] Meme Generator – Socially Average Penguin
[5] Meme Generator – Socially Terrifying Penguin
[6] Tumblr – F Yeah Socially Awkward Penguin
[7] Android Market – Socially Awkward Penguin
[8] Buzzfeed – The Best Of Socially Awkward Penguin
[9] Smosh – 25 Most Socially Awkward Penguin Moments
[10] Quickmeme – Socially Awkward Penguin
[11] Quickmeme – Looking Good / You Have No Plans Tonight
[12] Memestache – Socially Awkward Penguins
[13] Facebook – Socially Awkward Penguin
[14] Tumblr – Posts Tagged “Socially Awkward Penguin”
[15] Reddit – Socially Awkward Penguin On My Bus
[16] chanarchive – Mention of Socially Awkward Penguin
[17] chanarchive – Socially Awkward Penguin
[18] chanarchive – Socially Awkward Penguin mention
[19] Twitter – Search for #sociallyawkwardpenguin
[20] Street Couch – The Best of Socially Awkward Penguin
[21] Reddit – Reddit. I’m a depressed 20 year old male. I think about suicide. Am I abnormal? Is there hope for me?
[22] Topcultured – Socially Awkward Penguin in Real Life
[23] Runt of the Web – Something To Relate To: Socially Awkward Penguin
[24] Geekosystem – 101 Steps Toward Becoming Socially Awkward, As Told By a Penguin
[25] Reddit – Denying_Reality
[26] Memebase – Socially Awkward Advertisement
Related Entries 80 total
Recent Videos 16 total
Recent Images 563 total
Top Comments
Socially Awkward Troll
Apr 10, 2011 at 09:31AM EDT+35
It’s sad that the majority of all the images is my life. D: (cries in corner, then goes fap to hentai) :D
Sav
Mar 30, 2011 at 04:41PM EDT+32
Comments 69 total
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