What Is The 'Sup Jew' Meme? The Viral 'South Park' Redraw Trend Explained

Every once in a while, a piece of fan art comes around that's so cringeworthy it has to be seen to be believed. In 2022, that honor was awarded to a piece of South Park art known as, "Sup Jew?"

The art, which originally dates all the way back to 2012, is still inspiring redraws and variations today, but what's the story behind it? Here's what we know.

What Is The 'Sup Jew' Meme?

Back on September 11th, 2012, DeviantArt user anna-autobot12 posted a piece of South Park fan art shipping the characters Cartman and Kyle.

In the show, the two characters often have a contentious relationship, with Cartman regularly making fun of him for being Jewish. This makes it an unlikely, yet popular, ship pairing.

The artwork shows Cartman pinning Kyle to the wall and "romantically" saying, "Sup Jew?" to him. The bizarre piece of artwork went relatively unseen online until 10 years later when it started getting shared around by South Park fans on X and TikTok. Since then, the artwork has only continued to spread online.

How Is 'Sup Jew' Used In Memes?

In 2022, the art started popping up on TikTok and X / Twitter as the subject of reactions from those who stumbled across it.

Many found the art funny and strange, while many others were morbidly fascinated with the fact that it was posted on September 11th, 2012, the 11-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, adding to its arguably cursed nature.

Mostly, the artwork became the subject of redraws as an exploitable meme. Since 2022, it has inspired literally hundreds of redraws on sites including X, Reddit, TikTok and Pinterest, which have been collected and shared by numerous users over the past few years.

These redraws typically see creators replace the characters with other popular characters from different IPs, allowing every fandom to feel the cringe of the "Sup Jew" art.

For the full history of sup Jew, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.