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About

The Awkward Foreigner is the name given to an exploitable image that showcases a foreigner or a tourist complaining to a local family that the country he's visiting or the people that live in it don't look like a (usually outdated) stereotype by opening the conversation with "It's Actually A Bit Shocking Coming To X." Originally created to portray American tourists in Europe, the format evolved as a redraw series and phrasal template to include various nationalities, ethnicities and diasporas.

Origin

The image was posted for the first time on the 4chan board /int/ on November 11th, 2017, in an Amerimutt meme thread.^[1] The image shows an American tourist visiting Bavaria in southeast Germany and explaining to a local family his disappointment in the fact that Germans weren't wearing lederhosen and drinking beer, whilst claiming that his "1/12th German" family kept the traditions more alive (shown below).

It's actually a bit shocking coming to bavaria, I thought everyone would be wearing lederhosen and drinking beer. My family is 1/12th german, and we seem to keep the traditions more alive than here. It's sad how far europe has fallen from...

It's actually a bit shocking coming to bavaria, I thought everyone would be wearing lederhosen and drink beer. My family is 1/12th german and we seem to keep the traditions more alive than here. It's sad how far Europe has fallen from…

Spread

The image was reposted over 1,000 times on /pol/ and various other 4chan^[2] boards in the following years before spreading to other platforms, such as Reddit, where it spawned various edits. For example, on April 28th, 2020, Redditor AnonymousVariant posted to /r/TNOmod with an image titled "Fyurer Gutrum Vagner's state visit to Germania," which garnered over 1,100 points in one year (shown below, left).^[3] On June 22nd, 2020, an edit showing Astolfo trying to promote fascism was posted on /r/worldpolitics by user CoomerRemover. The post received over 45 points in one year (shown below, right).^[4]

It's actually a bit shocking coming to germania, I thought everyone would be wearing wehrmacht uniforms and killing subhumans. My warband is spiritually a----, we seem to keep the traditions more alive than here. It's sad to see how far europe has fallen from... 乐

have you read the doctrine of fascism? stay away from my family

On April 18th, 2020, an edit captioned "Carthaginian visiting a now very Hellenized Tyre circa 200 BC" was posted on Twitter by user @ByzLevant, which garnered over 600 likes and over 60 retweets in one year (shown, below).^[5]

wow, it's actually a bit shocking coming back to our mother city of Tsur and seeing what has become of it. I thought everyone would be wearing purple, speaking kennani and venerating melqart. my family is 1/12 tyrian and we seem to keep the traditions more alive than here. it's sad to see how far old phoenicia has fallen.

A version of the meme template that uses the "stay away from my family" line started to pick up steam in October 2020, with a user on /lit/^[8] posting a meme involving Gnosticism (shown below).

Have you ever heard of gnosticism? Stay away from my family

On March 10th, 2021, an edit titled "Neckbeards on a vacation" was posted to /r/justneckbeardthings by user Yourfellowyellowdog, garnering over 22,000 points in 10 months (shown below, left).^[6] On November 7th, 2021, another edit was posted to /r/moviescirclejerk by user Hail-china, and received over 1,500 points in two months (shown below, right).^[7]

It's actually a bit shocking coming to Tokyo, I thought everyone would be wearing kimonos and watching anime, My family is 1/12th japanese, and we seem to keep the traditions more alive than here. It's sad how far Japan has fallen from...

please sir, don't take your kids to see capeshit eternals, we need to support real cinema, it's our duty as kinophiles...may I suggest an underrated gem like Last Night in Soho or the last duel, now that's what I call a... please stay away from my kids dady, i'm scared LAST NIGHT IN 14 u A . A24 MARVEL

Various Examples

It's actually a bit shocking coming to Japan, I thought everyone would be wearing kimonos and doing cosplay. My family is 1/12 Japanese and my surname is Sakai. I keep Japanese traditions alive by watching Anime and eating sushi. It's sad how Westernized Japan has become...

Its actually a bit shocking seeing Amphibia, i thought this show would have LGBT main characters and anti-homophobic messages too. The Owl House is better show than this crap. Its sad to see how far Disney Animation has fallen from... A weirdo lol Who is that?

It's actually a bit shocking coming to Milan, I thought everyone would be talking with their hands, eating pizza, and sipping cappuccino before mass. Mamma mia amirite? My family is 1/12 Italian, and we seem to keep the traditions more alive than here. It's sad how far europe has fallen from....

Template

Search Interest

External References

^[1] /int/ – Thread # 81656405

^[2] 4plebs – image search

^[3] r/TNOmod – Fyurer Gutrum Vagner's state visit to Germania

^[4] r/worldpolitics – Good book 8/8

^[5] @ByzLevant – Carthaginian visiting a now very Hellenized Tyre circa 200 BC

^[6] r/justneckbeardthings – Neckbeards on a vacation

^[7] r/moviescirclejerk – a mcj user spotted in the wild

^[8] /lit/ – Gnosticism

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Awkward Foreigner / It's Actually A Bit Shocking Coming To X