Where Did The Thumbs Up Emoji Man Come From? The Origin Of The 'Picardía' Meme Explained

Recent times may have biased internet users' opinions of Argentina, a country whose new leader seems to be single-minded in his goal of turning Argentina into the first fourth-world-country. But there was a time when Argentina's triple-digit inflation wasn't the primary focus of memes worldwide.

The Strawman Ball, or as he is known in Argentina, Pícardia, shows a smug-looking emoji shooting his audience a thumbs up, usually alongside text mocking a political ideology. Here's how the meme went from a random Argentinian website to being one of 2016's most popular 4chan memes.

Where Did The Pícardia Emoji Come From?

The image of a bright yellow emoji wearing sunglasses and a beaming smile comes from one of the hundreds of personalized Emoji apps that proliferated in the 2000s. The EmotiGuy figure first circulated on Taringa, a Spanish social networking app, where it was eventually dubbed "Picardía," or "mischievous."

How Did Pícardia Spread Online?

The earliest known instance of the smug emoji being used in an English meme was on 4chan's /int/ board back in December 2015, but the first time the image was used to ridicule a political ideology was a series of posts mocking Anarcho-Capitalism on Reddit in August 2016.

Shortly after, additional variations of the smiley face began appearing on 4chan, with each customized to mock stereotypes associated with other political ideologies (shown below).^[7]

This theme continued for subsequent years, with the emoji being repainted in a variety of different colors every time it was used to mock another ideology.

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