Rage Comic Renaissance: Are Rage Comics Making A Comeback?

In August 2008, the internet was changed forever when an anonymous user posted the first-ever rage comic to 4chan. The comic was extremely simple, considering both its art style and humor, depicting a man known as Rage Guy taking a dump only to have the water splash back on him, resulting in the now-iconic scream of “FFFFUUUU-“ that you can almost hear echoing through the room when you read it.

In any sane world, this comic would have been a flash in the pan, disappearing with the 4chan post forever once it expired. We don’t live in a sane world though, and the meme economy of the time thrived on relatability even more so than it does now. Thus, rage comics were born, and for the next four years, they would dominate every social media platform on the web, from Tumblr to Facebook to 4chan and beyond. They offered an exciting new way to meme that involved storylines rather than single-image Advice Animals or reaction posts. Plus, they were really fun to make, and new characters were constantly popping up to use, effectively reshaping what a meme could even be.

Rage comics peaked around 2012 before steadily declining in the following years, stepping aside to allow new storytelling meme formats to take the spotlight, like webcomics, Dogelore, and, of course, Wojak, which originally began as a rage comic character. Since their peak, rage comics have become a relic of their time, with many people frequently citing them as “cringey” and “dated” these days. Now, in 2020, it seems as though rage comics are making their way back into the spotlight, exciting 25-year-old-boomers across the globe. But why now?

The Circle of Memes

The claim that rage comics are making a comeback is admittedly a bold one, but it’s not an absurd one considering we’ve seen meme revivals before. The most popular example has to be Doge, a meme that was brought back from the dead in a glorious way through Dogelore. Another example can be seen in Are Ya Winning, Son?, a format that originally popped up in 2014 but came back with a passion earlier this year, solidifying itself as an unshakeable classic in the memeverse (example from 2014 left, 2020 right).

There was no call to revive either of these memes. Instead, they came back under everyone’s noses with fresh new variants. This may be exactly why they managed to come back with such passion: nobody was forcing them, they just became funny again. The world went through a lot of changes in the time between Are Ya Winning Son? being popular the first time and then again in 2020.

There are new references and events to attach to the format, and the popular style of comedy has shifted, becoming more abstract and open. There’s simply more that can be done with them now, making the format ripe for a revival. We can look at Mom Can You Give Me Money? as a prime example of a format that literally started as a rage comic derivative before coming back this year with a decidedly more absurd bend to it (example from 2012 shown left, 2017 shown right).

Considering this, you could say that rage comics never really left, they just evolved and changed. Nobody is really asking for new rage comics, but there’s nothing stopping anyone from making them if a new idea pops up. Couple that with the internet’s rabid attachment to nostalgia as of the past few years, and a revival seems more than plausible.

Cover Yourself in Oil

In February, 9GAG user gegirik posted a brand new, explosive rage comic, known now as Cover Yourself in Oil. The comic, which is based on the rage comic sub-format Troll Science, depicts a stick figure with the rage comic “Troll Face” covering himself in oil (which floats on water) in order to be able to fly when it rains.

The post blew up on 9GAG with over 10,000 points, and continued to spread in subsequent reposts on Reddit. Throughout all the comments sections on these posts, users can be found expressing shock that this comic was made in 2020 based on just how successfully it replicates the style of 2010-era rage comics. Cover Yourself in Oil got a lot of people thinking about rage comics again and inspired many new variants. Although it’s not an authentic rage comic revival so-to-say, it’s worth noting that this post may have naturally inspired the current push for new rage comics and the nostalgia for past ones.

A Push From Reddit

Some of the best evidence that rage comics are on the up-and-up can be found by simply typing “rage comics” into the Reddit search bar. By doing so, you’ll find more than a few high-upvote posts from this year featuring and reminiscing on rage comics. One of the most popular of these was posted to /r/dankmemes in July, showing a slew of rage comic characters next to a selection of wojaks and the top text, “So glad I grew up with this, but damn this is good too.” The post received over 71,000 upvotes in four months, and the comments are full of people debating about which ones are better.

A more recent post from November to /r/PoliticalCompassMemes, fittingly titled “Reject modern wojak, embrace traditional rage comic,” combines the popular political compass meme with rage comics. The post gained over 4,000 upvotes in just a few days, with hardly a cry of cringe to be found in the comments. Rather, most people just seem to be swimming in nostalgia seeing these faces used again in a modern context.

Derpina Fan Art

One of the most bizarre new signs of a rage comic revival, which seems to stem from Twitter, is Derpina fan art. Derpina is one of the staple rage comic characters, defined by her “derpiness” towards everything. Sometime late in 2020, internet artists began making fan art of the character in droves. While lots of it is lewds (because of course it is), others have taken the high road and chosen to draw Derpina in a more admirable, flattering way beyond what we see in rage comics.

This influx of fan art led the Derpina entry to Know Your Meme’s trending bar earlier this month, an event that caused more than a few raised eyebrows among site users. Who knows why users chose to start making Derpina fan art in 2020, but it’s easy to see this as another sign of a rage comic revival.

Welcome Back, Rage Comics

Based on the evidence, some might say we’re experiencing the start of a rage comic revival right now. How far that revival will get before people lose interest remains to be seen though. It’s unlikely rage comics will come back with the force they had back in 2010, but the meme economy is often unpredictable. The subreddit /r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu, Reddit’s home for rage comics, pinned a post explaining them to newcomers back in March due to an uptick in new visitors. When I visited the subreddit a few days ago, a notification popped up at the bottom claiming there had been over 20,000 visits to it that week alone. What I also saw was a lot of brand new rage comics, with some users even trying to remaster the drawings in new variants (example seen below). On iFunny, the hashtag #ragecomics is popping off, with brand new iterations uploaded every day based on fresh references.

So, will rage comics continue to explode, or will they fall into the realm of cringe and obscurity again? It remains to be seen. As it stands though, rage comic lovers have good reason to be excited and hopeful for the future.

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