Third World Success

Third World Success

Part of a series on First World Problems. [View Related Entries]

Updated Jul 20, 2017 at 03:40PM EDT by SabrinaTibbetts.

Added Nov 29, 2011 at 09:24AM EST by Don.

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FIRST TO SEELION KING IN3D quickmeme.com

About

Third World Success is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photograph of a dancing tribal child with captions about overcoming hardships that are associated with life in underdeveloped countries. The series can be seen as a derivative of Success Kid and the anti-thesis of First World Problems.

Origin

Prior to the image's association with Third World Success, the image has been seen on Twitter[18] as early as June 2011 and paired with the phrase "It's Friday, Niggas"[16] as early as October 14th, 2011.[17] The First World Problems image macro series started with a BuzzFeed[13] post in March 2011 that juxtaposed stories from the First World Problems subreddit[14] with the items in question. Later that year, a Quickmeme[15] page was created featuring a stock photo of a woman crying. As of March 2012, the page has over 91,000 instances.

Terminology

The Third World[24] is a term coined in 1952 by French anthropologist Alfred Sauvy to define countries that did not take part in either capitalism (the First World) or communism (the Second World). Over the years, it gradually gained a negative connotation, being associated with poverty and a country being underdeveloped.[25] In contrast, the phrase First World[26] is associated with already developed countries. First World Problems are meant to criticize the fact that people who live in countries considered the First World will probably not have to encounter problems their Third World counterparts will: not owning a computer, starvation, and combat.[27]

Spread

On November 11th, 2011, Slacktory published a compilation of photos entitled "Third World Perks: A Photo Meme"[8] as a alternative to First World Problems. The images consisted of people living in impoverished conditions accompanied by optimistic captions.


ashing duty to t ouch water! Only 350 years til retirement Mon says on Friday get dinner

Approximately two and a half weeks later on November 27th, the first Third World Success image macro was created on Quickmeme[1], featuring a photo of a group of dancing children with the caption "Found water / wasn't contaminated." It was subsequently posted to Reddit[12] by user somename2222 and accumulated over 12,000 up votes within 4 days.


FOUND WATER WASN'T CONTAMINATED quickmeme.cO

On November 28th, the viral content site BuzzFeed[4] posted a round-up of instances titled "The Third World Success Kid Meme." Within 24 hours, there were 230 Reddit threads related to the meme and 972 Quickmeme[3] submissions. On November 29th, the culture blog Molempire published another compilation of derivatives. The meme has since spread to Tumblr[5], the Body Building forums[6] and Meme Generator.[11] As of March 2012, there are over 8000 instances on Quickmeme and over 630 on Reddit.[19]

AT&T President Lawsuit

On April 27th, 2015, gossip news site TMZ reported[33] that Aaron Slator, President of Content and Ad Sales for the American multinational telecom corporation AT&T (shown below, left), is facing a $100 million racial discrimination lawsuit filed by Knoyme King, a former employee of the company who worked under Slator as a content coordinator. According to the lawsuit, King claims that Slator had sent a text message to a friend that featured a racially insensitive instance of the meme (shown below, right), which also happens to be the earliest known version in the series, along with the note "an oldie but goodie." The message in question was initially discovered by one of King's colleagues and former assistance for Slator while transferring his data from an old cell phone to a new one.


Uverse LANSUIT Getty/TMZ.com Composile ITS FRIDAY N----! quickmeme

King also claims that she was treated unfairly and harassed by Slator for being a close acquaintance of his former assistant who discovered the message and that other executives at AT&T were informed about the incident but took no actions to reprimand Slator. The suit also accuses the company of maintaining a racially prejudiced culture, as King alleges she was repeatedly held back for promotions in favor of less qualified non-African American employees. That same day, an AT&T spokesperson issued a response condemning the action of Slator, who has played a vital role for the company in the merging and acquisition of DirecTV, calling the images "offensive to everyone at AT&T" and assuring that "a thorough investigation" has been launched to determine the appropriate course of disciplinary action. On the following day, AT&T released a statement confirming that Slator has been fired as a result of the controversy.

"Aaron Slator has been terminated. There is no place for demeaning behavior within AT&T and we regret the action was not taken earlier."

Notable Examples


TH BIRTHDAY PARTY BEAT LIFE EXPECTANCY quickmeme PLAY A WHOLE GAME OF SOCCER NOBODY STEPPEDONA LAND MINE quickmeme FRIEND HAS HOT MOM ALWAYS TOPLESS quickmeme GOT PEPPERSPRAYED 10 CALORIES quickmeme GOT BITTENBYA MOSQUITO DIDNTCONTRACT MALARIA quickmeme NOPC KBOX360,ORPS3 STILLGETS TO PLAY BATTLEFIELDAND MW3 RECIEVE BIBLE FRONM MISSIONARY FIREWOOD quickmeme NOINTERNET BECOME A MEME quickmeme JUST FOUND OUT IM NOT THE FATHER quickmeme

Derivatives

Second World Success Kid

On November 30th, 2011, a spin-off image macro series known as Second World Success[20] emerged on Reddit, which featured a picture of a smiling child waving a Chinese flag and various captions criticizing the developing nation's controversial issues of child labor laws and censorship of free speech. Collections of notable Instances were subsequently posted on Memebase[21], FunnyJunk[22], and #1 Meme Universal Trend.[23]


AM AGIRL PARENTS KEPT ME! NEW IPHONE IS COMING OUT LO0KS LIKPIMSPENDINGNEXT FEW NIGHTS ASSEMBLINGUT GOTARAISE NOW MAKE 11 CENTS ANHOUR STOODINFRONTOFTANK TANKSTOPPED LOGGEDONTO 0 FACEBOOK ALREADY PART OF 2012OLYMPIG GYMNASTICSTEAM

Skeptical Third World Success Kid

On June 22nd, 2012, Redditor anute3392 submitted a photograph of an Ugandan child titled "Skeptical 3rd World Child"[28] to the /r/pics subreddit. Apparently taken by Redditor Nepalm[32] during her trip to Uganda as a voluntary member of the Student Global Health Alliance, the photograph became an instant favorite and reached the frontpage of Reddit within hours of upload. Though the child in the photo has not been identified, the woman has been confirmed to be Heena Pranav, a doctor from Chicago who was in Uganda on a charity mission at the time.[35] The thread[28] went onto receive more than 17,000 upvotes and 725 comments in the first 24 hours, as well as spawning a series of image macros with captions alluding to the Third World Success Kid and the Skeptical Baby, an advice animal character based on a photo of an eyebrow-raising infant that emerged months earlier in January 2012.


SO,SOMEONE I'VE NEVER MET JUST WANTS TOGIVE ME65 CENTS ADAYA eratorinet YOU FINISHED YOUR PLATE BECAUSE I WAS SOYOU'RE TELLING ME IN AMERICA KIDS"PLAY ARMY
SO,LJUST CRY ON CAMERA AND MY VILLAGE GETSA NEW SCHOOL? quickmeme.com SO YOU'RE GONNA GIVE ME NEW SHOES AS LONG ASILET YOUPUT A JESUSIN MY HEART? COME BACK TO AMERICA WITH YOU? THAT WENT SO WELL THE FIRST TIME-

The majority of notable examples poked fun at the drastically different standards of living in the First World countries or the White Man's Guilt mentality, some Redditors quickly rebutted with a number of instances criticizing the community's inclination towards slacktivism and trivializing the grave issue of famine in Africa.


SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THEREISA WEBSITE WHERE PEOPLE WITH ALLTHESECURITIESILONG FOR ROT THEIR ENTIRE LIVES AWAY ATTEMPTING TO MAKE WITTY PHOTOS TOFEEL RELEVANT SOREDDIT ASSUMED WAS A3RD WORLD KID BECAUSEHMIBLACK? quickmeme.com SOWHAT YOU'RE SAYING IS PEOPLE GET KARMAFOR EXPLOITING.MYIMISFORTUNES? quickmeme.com

Search Interest

External References

[1] Quickmeme – Found water

[2] Reddit – Third world success

[3] Quickmeme – Third World Success

[4] BuzzFeed – The Third World Success Kid Meme

[5] Tumblr – #third world success

[6] Body Building – Third World Success

[7] FunnyJunk – third world success

[8] Slacktory – Third World Perks A Photo Meme

[9] The College Town Life – All My Bitches Love Me

[10] Harpito – Niggas that shot wyclef

[11] Meme Generator – Third World Success

[12] Quickmeme – We have first world problems, so I thought we should also have third world successes

[13] Buzzfeed – 15 Examples Of First World Problems

[14] Reddit – /r/firstworldproblems

[15] Quickmeme – First World Problems

[16] Google – Image search for "It's Friday Niggas

[17] Facebook – Its friday niggas Photos

[18] Twitter – @Quamdeen

[19] Reddit – Search results for "Third World Success

[20] Quickmeme – Second World Success

[21] Memebase – And It's Mostly True!

[22] FunnyJunk – Second World Success Comp.

[23] #1 Meme Universal Trend – Second World Success meme collection

[24] Wikipedia – Third World

[25] Cuso International – What's In a Name?

[26] Wikipedia – First World

[27] Wikipedia – First World Problem

[28] Reddit – Skeptical Third World Child

[29] Imgur – Skeptical Third World Child

[30] Quickmeme – Skeptical 3rd World Child

[31] Reddit – the_sgha's comment

[32] Reddit – Nepalm's user profile

[33] TMZ – T&T Sued Over Racist Meme Culture of Racism

[34] TMZ – "AT&T PRESIDENT
AXED OVER RACIST MEME LAWSUIT":www.tmz.com/2015/04/28/aaron-slater-fired-att-racist-meme-lawsuit/?adid=hero7

[35] BBC News – What a viral picture tells us about child poverty in Africa

Recent Videos 2 total

Recent Images 119 total


Top Comments

Minority
Minority

I really can't bring myself to give a shit about this horrible company or its CEO, but firing people over memes, stupid jokes on Twitter and other inconsequential bullshit really gets on my nerves. To everyone that gets outraged over every little thing for two days at most: fuck you.

+98
Dragirby (Discord  & Goat Dad's Waifu)
Dragirby (Discord & Goat Dad's Waifu)

Black Person Calls another Black Person Nigga. Nothing happens.

Black Person Calls White Person Nigga. Nothing happens.

Black Person Calls White Person Cracka. Nothing Happens.

White Person Calls White Person Cracka. He gets called a weirdo.

White Person Calls White Person Nigga. He gets looked at weird with possibility of verbal harrassment.

White Person Calls Black Person Nigga, SHIT STORM.

White Person sends private Message to a coworker. Said Friend doesn't understand memes and is probably going to be 100 million while man is shamed for life.

I don't get "racism" anymore.

+94

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