Assad Must Go

About

Assad Must Go, also known as the Assad Curse, refers to a four-panel, exploitable template that uses an image of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and another interchangeable political figure who chants, "Assad Must Go." Assad then responds to the imagined banter with, "Who Must Go?," prompting a response from the secondary character that makes Assad laugh. Primarily written in Impact font, the template was created in 2016 on 4chan's /pol/ board, inspired by a quote from former British prime minister David Cameron. It spread in usage on both Twitter and Reddit.

Origin

As a precursor, the image of Assad touching his ear originates from December 2010, captured by Reuters and first reposted by Israeli news outlet Y Net News.^[1] The image of Assad laughing comes from July 2008, originally shot by photography agency AFP.^[2]

The phrase "Assad Must Go" was used in politics as early as 2011, popularized by former U.S. President Barack Obama who was quoted saying it in August that year in response to accounts of Assad "torturing and slaughtering" his own people.^[3] In 2015, the discourse surrounding the phrase picked up again when Obama addressed the United Nations in September and reiterated it.^[4]

Other world leaders joined the trend, like former British prime minister David Cameron, who was also quoted saying it in 2015 at the UN assembly.^[5] This utterance from Cameron inspired the first iteration of the Assad Must Go template. However, before the template's creation, on May 6th, 2016, Twitter^[8] user iadtawil posted an image that detailed the "'Assad must go' Curse," being the first image macro online to coin the phrase. The meme (shown below) earned over 250 likes in five years.

Although the meme most likely originated on 4chan, the earliest, accessible version was reposted to Twitter on June 24th, 2016, by the Twitter^[6] account of Polish politician Krzysztof Bosak. Bosak's tweet (shown below, left) received 50 likes over five years. The image's earliest known use on 4chan is evident in a /pol/^[7] messageboard thread, uploaded on June 26th, 2016. The meme (shown below, right) shows Cameron saying, "Assad Must Go," only to make Assad laugh in reference to Cameron resigning from Prime Minister in 2016.

Spread

Going into the rest of 2016, more iterations involving different political figures emerged online like ones including Hillary Clinton, Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. senator John McCain. Although the exact origin of these iterations is unknown, a long-form image of them was uploaded to an Australian blog^[9] on November 11th, 2016 (shown below). Again, the blog touched on the "Assad Must Go" Curse.

The template took off in usage going into the years following, specifically taking off on Reddit's /r/SyrianCirclejerkWar. For instance, on September 10th, 2019, a meme was shared by Redditor^[10] alah123, receiving over 800 upvotes in two years (shown below, left). On October 19th, 2020, Redditor^[11] Bugnio created a viable remix, making the template read backward, editing in text reading, "Assad Must Stay." The meme (shown below, right) received over 900 upvotes in two years.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References