About

Gekoloniseerd is a Dutch word which means "colonized." After appearing in an animated short explaining Dutch colonialism and the East India Trading Company, the term began being used on Dutch subreddits in jokes about the Dutch taking something over. Eventually, these jokes spread to history meme subreddits.

Origin

On January 20th, 2017, YouTuber Studio Massa posted an animated short about Dutch colonization titled "de VOC (voor idioten)," which translates to the "Dutch East India Trading Company, for Idiots." In the video, a Dutch explorer visits a remote island and is helped by a local, only to eventually hit the local. As the dark-skinned man falls, red text reading "Gekoloniseerd" appears over his face, similar to a Wasted or You Died screen (shown below).

Spread

On February 13th, 2017, the image was posted to /r/circeltrek^[1] as a reaction image with the caption, "Filips Gezicht Wanneer ik Spaansche lesboeken verbrand en er daarna overheen pis," which roughly translates "when I burn Philip's Spanish books and piss all over them." Over the following two years, the phrase continued seeing similar use in Dutch subreddits. On April 18th, 2018, Redditor WAVAW-WAVAW posted a Cake Slice meme about the Dutch East India Company's exploitation of India, gaining 122 points in /r/circeltrek^[2] (shown below, left). On February 2nd, 2019, Redditor B-Company^[3] posted a Poland Ball meme using the phrase, gaining over 90 points in /r/nederlands.^[3]

As the memes began spreading in Dutch subreddits, /r/HistoryMemes began seeing popular posts about the phrase as well. For example, a post with the phrase posted November 17th, 2018 by user katuabeltza^[4] gained over 5,000 points (shown below, left). On December 27th, user Offensivekmemes^[5] posted an It's Free Real Estate meme using the phrase, gaining over 340 points (shown below, right). The spread of jokes was inquired about on /r/OutOfTheLoop^[6] on December 30th, 2018.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References