About

Bart Simpson "War in the Gulf" Parodies refers to an exploitable meme inspired by a bootleg T-shirt that shows a cross-eyed Bart Simpson from The Simpsons dressed as a soldier next to a map of the Persian Gulf. The image reads, "War in the Gulf 1991, Operation Desert Storm," and Bart Simpson has a speech bubble that reads, "I was there dude… and it sucked!!!" The image of the bootleg Bart Simpson shirt design first began making the rounds online in 2018, and inspired a meme trend after 2022 in which people used the original artwork to create redraws.

Origin

The earliest known post featuring the image of Bootleg Bart dressed as an army veteran in the Gulf War was a January 14th, 2018, post by an unknown Redditor on the subreddit /r/army.^[1] The post gathered over 300 upvotes in seven years.

The image was reposted to the subreddit /r/ComedyHeaven^[2] by Redditor /u/undoubtedlynottaken on July 11th, 2019, where it gathered over 39,000 upvotes in six years.

The earliest known meme inspired by the Bart Simpson Gulf War T-Shirt was a May 23rd, 2021, post on iFunny^[3] by the user ObservantGuardsman. The post, which referenced the Sneed's Feed and Seed meme, gathered over 400 smiles in four years.

Spread

On May 12th, 2022, X^[4] user @napcakes2 posted a Mobile Suit Gundam War in the Pocket 0080 edit of the meme featuring the character Alfred Izuruha. The post gathered over 2,700 likes in three years.

On November 1st, 2022, X^[5] user @Schizoedits posted a version of the meme that read, "War in New Swabia, 1947, Operation Highjump." The image is a reference to a failed Nazi Germany operation that attempted to capture a region of Antarctica. The post gathered over 2,900 likes in three years.

On April 5th, 2024, X^[6] user @SirFenuier also posted a version of the meme referencing New Swabia, gathering over 2,000 likes in a year.

On February 13th, Redditor /u/Bitter-Gur-4613 posted a version of the meme to the subreddit /r/mapporncirclejerk^[7] showing the supermarket chain Aldi fighting over two German territories. The post gathered over 2,600 likes in two months.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References