Brazil Mentioned

About

Brazil Mentioned refers to a series of reaction images, usually featuring the character Yui Hirasawa from K-ON! or other anime girls celebrating, which are captioned with a celebratory text that a certain country got mentioned. Online, the images are often posted as a reply to posts mentioning various countries, especially when they are mentioned in a negative context.

Origin

On May 15th, 2009, episode seven "Christmas!" of season one of the anime series K-ON! premiered.^[1] In one scene of the episode, the character Yui Hirasawa raises a bottle of champagne and a glass at a Christmas party (shown below).

Prior to 2021, the image saw limited use in memes. For example, in 2010, a Demotivational Poster about Yui Hirasawa based on the image was circulated^[2] (shown below).

Prior to February 23rd, 2021, an unknown user posted an image in which Yui was edited next to a group of people in Brazil, given a hat reading, "Please be patient I have autism," and the bottle in her hand replaced with a bottle of beer (shown below, left).^[3] On February 23rd, iFunny^[4] user Mexikano_Amerikano then posted the image captioned, "Brazil Mentioned," as if Yui is celebrating Brazil being mentioned in another post (shown below, right). The author of the image, and the site it was originally posted to, are unknown.

Spread

Through 2021 and 2022, the reaction image saw gradual spread online, being used to highlight Brazil being mentioned in various contexts, often negatively. For example, on August 29th, 2021, Twitter^[5] user @mybadiguess used the image to highlight Brazil being mentioned in a post about League of Legends: Wild Rift (shown below, left). On March 3rd, Twitter^[6] user @YenuelR used the image to react to a post about the homicide rate in the country (shown below, right).

The frequent use of the reaction image on Twitter and other sites inspired versions about other countries and regions, with the reaction images sometimes using other anime girl characters rather than Yui. For example, on July 13th, 2022, Twitter^[7] user @wagahainawa posted an Indonesian version of the reaction image (shown below, left). On November 27th, Redditor^[8] MyUshanka posted a Minnesota version of the reaction image (shown below, right).

Through the second half of 2022 and early 2023, the trend of posting "Country Mentioned" reaction images achieved significant popularity on social media, primarily on Twitter and Facebook.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References