Chili by Crawfish Comic / "Chili" "Alan!"

About

Chili or "Chili" "Alan!" refers to a webcomic by Crawfish Comic in which a man in a green hat eats a red chili pepper, turns red, then gets lifted up on his chair by a crowd of people cheering "chili." The comic was originally posted to Tumblr in January 2023 and garnered viral spread over the following months. In mid-2024, a version of the meme in which the man is referred to as "Alan" after turning red, a reference to Smiling Friends, went viral, inspiring redraws.

Origin

On January 13th, 2023, Tumblr^[1] user and webcomic artist Crawfish Comic posted a four-panel comic title "Chili" that garnered over 21,200 notes in just under two years. In the comic, a man in a green hat sits in a chair and eats a red pepper. The pepper is so spicy it causes him to turn red. A person points at the red man and yells "chili." Finally, the red man is lifted up in his chair and paraded around by a happy crowd of people chanting "chili."

The post garnered viral spread over the following months. On February 7th, it was posted to /r/CuratedTumblr,^[2] garnering around 900 upvotes in roughly two years. On July 6th, 2024, X^[3] user @RealYouTubeKids posted an edit of the first three panels of the comic, in which the person yells "Alan!" at the red man rather than "Chili," referencing the Smiling Friends character Alan, garnering over 61,000 likes and 3,900 reposts in four months.

Spread

On November 4th, 2024, the "Alan" version of the meme was reposted by X^[4] user @C_hoffmanni, garnering over 92,000 likes and 5,100 reposts in a day. That day, X^[5] user @Vanniii06 quote-reposted the post with a redraw of the comic that references Phineas and Ferb. Later that day, Redditor u/siamesefightinfish69 reposted the original "Alan" meme to /r/smilingfriends,^[6] garnering over 1,400 upvotes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References