Bajookieland

About

Bajookieland is an imaginary country that was made up by Instagram and TikTok meme creator Tony Zaret. Bajookieland is located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and has the neighboring countries of Bajonkistan and Bajonkistan 2 (which are rivals of Bajookieland). The people of Bajookieland, known as the Bajookanese, speak their own language consisting of many "oo" and "u" sounds. Also, the Bajookanese flag is orange, green and blue with a red spiral shape in its middle that resembles a sun. After Tony Zaret spawned Bajookieland in mid-2022, he and other meme creators invented different facets of Bajookieland's culture, such as the food "grum grum," creating an ironic and nonsensical meme.

Origin

On April 17th, 2022, Tony Zaret posted a video skit to Instagram^[1] that was about how the citizens of different countries reacted to the film Morbius, including the U.S., the U.K., China and Bajookieland. The Bajookieland resident stated, "What the Bajookie! Morbius is a sus bajooker." Over the course of 11 months, the video received roughly 13,400 likes. Zaret also posted the video to his TikTok^[2] on the same day, where it gained roughly 100,000 plays and 15,500 likes in 11 months (shown below).

Spread

On April 18th, 2022, Redditor uhkms04844 posted three map images to /r/imaginarymaps^[7] that showed Bajookieland located off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. The map named its capital (Brongulus) and listed its population size and area (shown below, left). Over the course of 11 months, the post received over 580 upvotes. Going into April 2022, Zaret continued to post Bajookieland-related content online, such as a video uploaded to his TikTok^[3] page that gained roughly 33,600 plays and 4,900 likes in 11 months. The same video was shared on his Instagram,^[4] where it received more engagement, earning roughly 11,000 likes in 11 months (shown below, right).

In the aforementioned video and Reddit meme, the Bajookieland flag was shown, consisting of orange, green and blue stripes with a red spiral shape in its middle. The flag was not created by Zaret himself and is rather the flag of another imaginary country called the Peoples Republic of Atrophia.^[5]

On June 1st, 2022, Zaret posted a meme to his Instagram^[6] that was his first image macro that referenced Bajookieland and the Bajookanese flag. It received roughly 14,900 likes in nine months (shown below, left). Memes about Bajookieland became commonplace on iFunny in late 2022, for instance, on October 5th, 2022, iFunnyer^[11] @The_Judge_ shared a meme about "New Bajookieland," located beneath Texas and home of the best "Phlamp." The meme received roughly 5,100 smiles in five months (shown below, right).

Sometime in mid-2022, an extensive Fandom^[6] page was made for Bajookieland on the Tony Zaret Wiki.

Bajonkistan

On January 23rd, 2023, Tony Zaret posted a video to TikTok^[8] that explained what the story was behind the Bajookieland flag. He explained that it was a color-inverted version of a flag used by "extremists from Bajonkistan," an imagined rival country of Bajookieland who was claimed to blame Bajookieland for the "Bajonkistani Gaming Shortage of 2011." Over the course of two months, Zaret's video gained roughly 185,800 plays and 28,000 likes and acted as his first mention of Bajonkistan (shown below).

Further Spread

Going into early 2023, Bajookieland memes were made by meme creators other than Zaret in more abundance. For instance, on January 30th, 2023, YouTuber Lord Miles posted to Twitter^[9] two fake maps of Bajookieland, stating, "I was classified as a flight risk in bajookieland due to bajonkistan propodanda," and earning roughly 1,100 likes in two months (shown below).

A screenshot of Lord Miles' tweet was reposted by iFunnyer^[10] @real_lord_miles on January 30th, 2023, where it received roughly 8,200 smiles in two months.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References