Red Beret

About

Red Beret refers to images of a person or pop culture character edited such that they are wearing a red beret with a surprised expression. Online, the trend has been adopted by Indonesian users to indirectly reference the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo.

Origin

On June 1st, 2013, local media outlet Merdeka^[1] uploaded a photo of Joko Widodo, later twice elected President of Indonesia in 2014 and 2019, wearing a black shirt and red beret as he attended the commemoration of Pancasila Day (shown below).

Spread

The photo and Widodo's beret didn't grow into a popular meme until late 2019, when users began placing a red beret on pop culture characters as a means of poking fun at the Indonesian President. For example, on December 31st, 2019, Facebook^[2] page Living In Democrazy System Ironically uploaded a "wow" reaction wearing a red beret which indirectly referred to Joko Widodo, criticizing Widodo's take on the "skyrocketing" the economy of Indonesia. The post received 717 reactions and 80 shares (shown below).

One year later, the red beret began seeing use on other characters with surprised expressions. For example, in late October of 2020, Facebook^[3] user Abim Widodo uploaded a screenshot of a comment in which another user asked about the meaning of "red beret meme." The post received 624 reactions and 382 shares (shown below).

On October 21st, 2020, Facebook^[4] page Living In Democrazy System Ironically uploaded screenshots of people who uploaded characters and animals wearing a red beret. The post was received 562 reactions and 190 shares (shown below).

Banning "Red Beret" Memes

Due to many users uploading red beret memes in the comment section, Facebook^[5] page Every Spongebob Frame In Order decided to ban "red beret" memes. The post was received more than 7,100 reactions and 1,100 shares (shown below).

okay, so this has been going on for a while, and while I don't fully understand it, and I don't think I will, I need to address it.
we gotta stop the red beret memes.
it's flooding the comments, and apparently is offensive to some people. We try to keep this an inclusive place for everyone.
Again, I don't understand the significance of it, but please, either tone it down, or we will have to take further action, including possible bans.

Several days later, the same page^[6] again warned users after some Facebook users tried to skirt the ban by changing the beret color from red to blue. The post received more than 3,700 reactions and 145 shares (shown below).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References