Forest Anon

About

Forest Anon or Forestanon is a series of Wojak variations developed around a character who enjoys nature. The variants all share features such as long beards, green or white hats and small mice atop their heads. The Chad versions are also sometimes known as Mountain Chad or Hobo Chad.

Origin

"Forest Anon" is based on a real person, a 4chan poster on 4chan's /lit/ board (seen below), where he was a user himself before the website tightened restrictions on mobile IP addresses.^[2] /lit/ members gave him the nickname Forest Anon on July 3rd, 2020, and encouraged him to upload on YouTube so they could continue following along as he updated them on his life in the woods.^[3]

The Forest Anon meme began appearing on 4chan in 2021^[1] and is a variant of the Wojak and Chad characters (shown below).

Spread

As the memes started to grow in prominence on 4chan, they spread to other boards like /r9k/, /out/ /diy/, /adv/ and others, eventually reaching social media. ^[4] Over time, the real life "forest anon" character became known for training feral mice that live inside his hut, bonding with the animals that live around him and rescuing wildlife he finds in various predicaments.^[5]

Thus the meme variations based on him are usually associated with subjects like environmentalism, minimalism, primitivism, ecology, wholesomeness, the outdoors, nature, animals (specifically mice or other rodents), and suicide prevention due to a life-affirming video he made in response to a suicidal fan (seen below).^[6]

^[7]

Forest Anon was also investigated by the FBI for recommending anti-society literature to his viewers, and his file offers a profile analysis many have found humorous, going into lengthy detail describing him as a peaceful hermit living in the woods with pet rats.^[8] As a result, the "forest anon" meme is sometimes used as a symbol of anti-statism, anarchism, innocence, and a way to mock authority and the American surveillance state.

Eventually the memes spread to TikTok, with users sharing an array of edits under the hashtag #forestanon. The "forestanon" hashtag has gained over 1.5 million views.^[9]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References