
"Not Bad" Obama Face
Part of a series on Barack Obama. [View Related Entries]

About
Obama Rage Face (also known as "Not Bad" Face) is a rage comic reaction face based on a press photograph of Barack Obama wearing a sturgeon face during his official state visit to the United Kingdom in May 2011. The image is used as a positive response to a pleasant surprise or an outcome of an event that has surpassed one's expectation, similar to the usage of "everything went better than expected" face.
Origin
On May 24th, 2011, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama paid a visit to the Queen of England at the Buckingham Palace.[1] During the presidential couple's first state visit to the United Kingdom, a peculiar photograph of the couple looking rather startled was taken by a Reuters photojournalist. The Obamas' summit with the British royal family was widely covered by the British news media and the photograph was featured two days later as "Picture of the Day" by The Telegraph.[10]

On the May 26th, 2011, Redditor joeyjoejoe99 posted a rage comic on the f7u12 subreddit called "Not Bad Obama."[2] The multi-pane comic strip depicted Computer Reaction Guy photoshopping the news photograph into a rage comic reaction face and being satisfied with the result, accompanied by the caption in red letters "Not Bad." Later that day, a version of the first lady Michelle Obama's O RLY face was posted by Redditor thrsdy titled "Not Bad, Michelle".[3]


Spread
Shortly after the Reddit post, several comic strips and threads were submitted including a faceswap instance posted by Redditor eyes_of_disapproval in a thread titled "Not bad, Mobama".[4] The Daily Mail[6] held a captioning contest using the photograph and The Daily What[5] featured the Obamas' rage faces on the same day.




In the following weeks, derivative comics and reaction faces were highlighted by internet humor site Memebase[7], as well as resource sites for reaction faces like Ragefac.es[8] and All The Rage Faces.[9] Meanwhile, the caption "Not Bad" became associated with "sturgeon face" images in general:



AMA Recognition
On August 26th, 2012, Obama visited Reddit for a 30 minute AMA[11]. In address to what he thinks about reddit, the president makes a direct mention to his rage face. Though this is not confirmed as intentional, it is highly likely, with "NOT BAD" in all caps.
![c19.png [-] gobearss 166 points 1 hour ago How do you balance family life and hobbies with, well, being the POTUS? permalink 个【-】 RRR.moon, ell [S] 60 points 12 minutes ago It's hard truthfully the main thing other than work is just making sure that I'm spending enough time with michelle and the girls. The big advantage I have is that I live above the store so I have no commute! So we make sure that when I'm in DC I never miss dinner with them at 6:30 pm even if I have to go back down to the Oval for work later in the evening. I do work out every morning as well, and try to get a basketball or golf game in on the weekends just to get out of the bubble. Speaking of balance, though, I need to get going so I'm back in DC in time for dinner. But I want to thank everybody at reddit for participating this is an example of how technology and the internet can empower the sorts of conversations that strengthen our democracy over the long run. AND REMEMBER TO VOTE IN NOVEMBER if you need to know how to register, go to Gottaregister.com. By the way, if you want to know what I think about this whole reddit experience NOT BAD permalink parent](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/390/039/c19.png)
For more information on the AMA, head over to the Obama entry.
Search Interest
Search queries for "Not Bad Obama" picked up in late May 2011, around the same time as the original rage comic threads were posted via Reddit. As of January 2012, search interest has not waned off.
External References
[1] BBC News – Queen greets President Obama on first UK state visit / 5/24/2011
[2] Reddit – Not Bad, Obama / 5/26/2011
[3] Reddit – Not Bad, Michelle / 5/26/2011
[4] Reddit – Not bad, Mobama / 5/26/2011
[5] The Daily What – Rage Comic of the Day / 5/26/2011
[6] DailyMail – Caption Competition
[7] Memebase – Search Results for Not Bad
[9] All The Rage Faces – Not Bad Obama
[10] The Telegraph – Pictures of the day: 26 May 2011
Top Comments
Pokejoseph64
Feb 15, 2021 at 05:48PM EST in reply to
Spartan4085
Aug 30, 2012 at 12:34AM EDT