Nikola Jokić

About

Nikola Jokić, also known by his nickname Joker, is a Serbian professional basketball player on the NBA team the Denver Nuggets. Jokić came to prominence in the NBA throughout the early 2020s, becoming the league's MVP (most valuable player) across multiple seasons. In accordance with his rise, he gained a large fanbase online, represented in memes about him on Twitter, Instagram and Reddit, among other websites. He was given the nickname Joker due to the phonetic similarity to his name and his off-court/on-court shenanigans that painted him as a trickster. His unconventional play style and physical build gave fuel to the memes and viral discourse about him.

Background

Nikola Jokić was born in Sombor, Serbia on February 19th, 1995.^[1][2] He grew up with two older brothers who introduced him to basketball.^[2] He played for a professional Serbian team called Mega Leks before being drafted to the NBA in 2015 by the Denver Nuggets.^[2] Years later, in both 2021 and 2022, Jokić won the NBA's MVP award.^[5]

Online History

Nikola Jokić has no accounts on Instagram, Twitter or TikTok, however, he does have an official Facebook^[3] page. His first Facebook^[4] post was uploaded on December 10th, 2015, gaining 41 reactions in eight years. Despite a small online presence, online posts about Jokić achieved virality in late 2016 amid his second season. For instance, the earliest discovered viral post about Jokić was a video uploaded on December 15th, 2016, by the Instagram^[4] page @slam, gaining roughly 68,400 views and 9,500 likes in seven years (shown below).

Around the same time, similar highlight videos started going viral on Twitter.^[6] In 2017, other players started tweeting about Jokić, such as Kevin Durant on July 25th, 2017, whose tweet^[7] gained roughly 12,300 likes in six years. Also in 2017, verified Twitter^[8][9] accounts began calling Jokić by his nickname "Joker."

Related Memes

As Jokić gained notoriety in the league and among the NBA's fanbase in the late 2010s and early 2020s, memes about him started to surface on NBA Twitter, NBA meme accounts on Instagram and the /r/NBAmemes subreddit, among other hubs for NBA discourse.

Jokić's Weight

Starting in early 2020, memes surfaced that joked about Jokić gaining weight after the season or during breaks in the season. For instance, on March 12th, 2020, Twitter^[10] user @nflandhotdfan tweeted a photo of Brian Windhorst with, "Jokic after he comes back from the NBA’s one month hiatus," gaining roughly 14,000 likes in three years (shown below).

The Jokić Brothers

In 2021, memes surfaced about Jokić's older brothers that portrayed them as intimidating, mostly due to a video that went viral on Twitter^[11] in June 2021 that showed them yelling at players on the Pheonix Suns during a playoff game. For instance, on June 13th, 2021, Twitter^[12] user @SGG_hq tweeted a photo from Good Fellas, reading, "The Jokic brothers pulling up on the refs after the game," gaining roughly 15,000 likes in two years (shown below, left). On November 9th, 2021, Twitter^[13] user @SeanYoo posted a similar tweet with an image from The Matrix, gaining roughly 25,000 likes (shown below, right).

Jokić Fat Kid Photo

Starting in 2015 on Twitter^[14] and Reddit,^[15] a photo of Jokić as a child with his family circulated, depicting him as an overweight kid (shown below, left). Going into the 2020s, the photo was often used in memes about Jokić. For instance, sometime in 2020, an unknown creator turned the photo into a parody of the NBA logo (shown below, right). Currently, its first known upload was on the website Gazzetta^[16] which used it often in 2020.

After 2021, Jokić won league MVP and became widely recognized as a great player. Thereafter, the image of him as an overweight child was used more frequently in memes on Twitter^[17][18] and elsewhere as a way to juxtapose his greatness with his seemingly unlikely, physical beginning.

Heat Nuggets? What Is This, My Damn Microwave?

Heat Nuggets? What Is This, My Damn Microwave? is an oft-repeated catchphrase and usually ironic joke about the 2023 NBA Final between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets that makes a pun from the two teams and their names. In May 2023, the joke became so widespread online that it led to anti-meme and parody variations.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References