About

Romanians Stealing Wallets refers to a series of Balkan memes based on an ethnic stereotype that Romanins are inclined to engage in petty theft such as pickpocketing. Memes about Romanians stealing wallets achieved significant prominence in Balkan meme communities in 2021.

Origin

In online culture, the stereotype found reflection in memes that imagine Romanians eagerly stealing people's wallets given the opportunity. On July 7th, 2016, Imgur^[1] user TheWolfenberg posted a collection of How People Shower memes created by various users, which included the first viral example of the meme. The post received over 186,000 views in five years (shown below).

Spread

The joke did not see further use in memes until 2021 when they gained prominence as a subgenre of recently popularized Balkan memes. On April 8th, 2021, Redditor Okacha1653 posted a Trade Offer meme that gained over 6,800 upvotes in /r/2balkan4you^[2] six months (shown below, left). Several more examples of the meme were posted on Reddit and Instagram in spring and summer 2021. However, the joke did not gain significant virality until September 20th, 2021, when Redditor Optic__ posted a We Are Not the Same meme that received over 2,900 upvotes in /r/2balkan4you^[3] in two months (shown below, right).

In the following weeks, the meme received viral spread through reposts. On October 15th, 2021, an unknown Redditor posted another meme that gained over 8,800 upvotes in /r/2balkan4you^[4] prior to being deleted (shown below).

In the following weeks, more viral examples of the meme appeared online, primarily in the /r/2balkan4you subreddit and on Facebook.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References