About

Meme Man refers to a grey 3D rendering of a human head which functions as the mascot for the Facebook page "Special meme fresh." The head is frequently used in absurd edits, surreal memes and shitposting.

Origin

On August 9th, 2014, the Facebook^[2] group Special meme fresh posted the earliest known version of Meme Man. The image received more than 500 reactions in less than seven years (shown below).

According to a post by Special meme fresh's on the Know Your Meme forums,^[1] the 3D model of the head originates from "a wonky attempt at a human head posted on 4chan’s 3DCG board long ago." The image was later adapted to be their profile mascot, first appearing in their profile photo.^[2]

Spread

On March 4th, 2016 a photo of meme man accompanied by a parody of UKIP's Pledge To Britain was posted to /r/Braveryjerk.^[3] As of almost a week later, the post has over 100 points (99% upvoted). A post to Tumblr of the character photoshopped to be looking at the word meme was posted on November 3rd, 2015. The post has gained over 40 thousand notes.^[4]

On October 24th, 2015, Facebook user "Special meme fresh," posted a four-panel comic featuring the character which gained more than 2,000 likes in five months. The next day, the image was reposted to Tumblr^[4] by Special meme fresh." The Tumblr version of the post has gained over 20,000 notes. The image would come to be known as Layers of Irony.

The following year, on September 17th, 2016, Redditor PboyAMR launched the /r/MemeMan^[6] subreddit. As of February 2021, the subreddit has more than 11,000 subscribers.

On June 5th, 2017, Special Meme Fresh^[5] posted the image of Meme Man in front of a stock photo representing the stock market, captioned "stonks." The image gained over 3,600 likes and reactions (shown below).

On October 25th, 2017, Urban Dictionary ^[5] user DankAssSock defined "Meme Man" as "immortal being, he is everywhere but also nowhere. no one could ever ascend to his level for he is way high on a superior scale reserved for the heavenly."

Various Examples

Related Memes

Surreal Memes

Surreal Memes are a sub-genre of Ironic Memes that are artistically bizarre in appearance and whose humor derives from their absurd style. Though the difference between Surreal Memes and Deep Fried Memes and Dank Memes is subtle, certain qualities and characters, such as Layers of Irony, Meme Man, Mr. Orange, and a minimalist style, are frequent markers of a Surreal Meme.

Meme Man Wurds

Meme Man Wurds, also known as Stonks Edits, refer to reaction images featuring Meme Man in which the character is depicted as being unjustifiably proud of the action described above him. The meme will feature intentionally misspelled words related to his activity. The trend began with the 2019 rise of Stonks and has gone on to spawn many variants, including Shef, Tehc and Helth.

Search Interest

External References