Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 9: The JOJOLands; read at your own caution.

About

John Rod is a nickname for an unnamed stand that appears in chapter 38 of the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 9: The JOJOLands. John Rod is depicted as two glowing rods shaped into a stickman-like figure. The stand was popularized online in mid-July 2026, inspiring edits, fan art, memes and other fan content. Many of the memes refer to John Rod's strength, powerscaling him as incredibly powerful.

Origin

On July 17th, 2026, chapter 38 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 9: JOJOLands titled "Usagi, Fraud, and Suspicion, Part 6" was released.^[1] In the chapter, the characters Dragona, Paco and Jodio interrogate an enemy named Mundra. After the interrogation is complete, they leave him. Later, an unnamed stand appearing as two rods comes from the sky and approaches Mundra. The rods change shape into a stickman-like figure, then kill him by using hundreds of projectiles.

Spread

On July 16th, 2026, X^[2] user @Scotia814 uploaded a post mentioning the unnamed stand with the caption, "Araki's been doing this shit for 40+ years and he's still got it because what the actual F-CK is this stand." The post received more than 4 million views and 110,000 likes in four days.

The community subsequently named the character John Rod, as its name was yet to be revealed. It is unclear who first came up with the name. The naming scheme of "John X" is likely a reference to memes and nicknames like "John Halo" or John Darksoul, a nickname given to the unnamed protagonist of Dark Souls.

On July 18th, Redditor Joemama0375 uploaded image compilations of the stand titled, "John rod/bullshit with legs(?) from Jojolands/JJBA part 9" to the /r/TopCharacterDesigns^[3] subreddit. The post received more than 5,000 upvotes in three days.

The stand gained further popularity in mid-July 2026 as the community started making edits, fan art and memes about it.

For example, on July 17th, 2026, X^[4] user @roadagained uploaded fan art of John Rod, suggesting that in their original pose, Rod's hands look like they're in his pockets. The post received more than 84,000 views and 12,000 likes in three days.

On the same day, X^[5] user @Jojolion_2011_ uploaded an edit of John Rod approaching Sukuna from Jujutsu Kaisen. The post received more than 760,000 views and 59,000 likes in three days.

On July 20th, X^[6] user @offscrambledegg uploaded fan art of their original character getting sliced into two by John Rod, then saying, "The strongest." The post received more than 668,000 views and 105,000 likes in one day.

On the same day, YouTuber^[7] Lessons In Meme Culture uploaded a video titled "John Rod Solos Fiction" discussing the stand. The video received more than 94,000 views in one day.

Also on July 20th, 2026, TikToker^[8] @shub02_ posted a video of themselves drawing John Rod as a barber giving King Crimson a fade, garnering over 170,000 views in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References