Senor Chang's "I’ll Allow It"
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About
“I’ll Allow It” is a memorable quote uttered by Senor Chang (played by Ken Jeong) and an exploitable image macro from the 2009 TV comedy Community. The quote is used alongside a frame from the show depicting Chang’s character reclining in a chair while wearing a sombrero as a reaction image and GIF to an above caption, comment or screenshot, typically to show that something is acceptable or adequate.
Origin
The original scene that the meme originates from is in Community season 1, episode 12 called “Comparative Religion,” which was released on December 10th, 2009. During the clip (shown below), Señor Chang is seen wearing a sombrero while reclined in his seat with his feet up on a desk during a Spanish final. A student walks in and attempts to fight another student to which Chang replies “I’ll allow it,” the same line seen in the meme’s caption.
Although the exact first use of the scene as a meme format is unknown, it began appearing online as early as 2013 where it was used in replies as a reaction image and GIF. One such example comes from Redditor[1] Toribor who used the GIF version as a reply to another user on November 1st, 2013, receiving over 400 upvotes in six months. On April 22nd, 2015, Imgur[2] user 0Wisely0 uploaded the GIF to the site where it received over 9.5 million views in over five years (shown below).
Precursor
Prior to its usage on Community, the phrase "I'll allow it" was popularized by Judge Mills Lane on the 90s animated television series Celebrity Deathmatch.[8]
Spread
On June 21st, 2019, Facebook[3] page The Dad posted another example of the meme to their page, receiving over 10,000 likes, 8,200 shares and 830 comments in six months (seen below, left). On October 10th, 2019, Redditor Sigmarito posted a variant to the /r/memes[4] sub, receiving over 125,000 upvotes and 1,110 comments in six months (seen below, right).
On August 28th, 2020, Redditor MysticFaJ posted another version to the /r/wholesomememes[5] subreddit, accumulating nearly 3,000 upvotes and one Wholesome award in three months (shown below, left). The following day, Instagram[6] page meme.flicks posted an example to their feed, accumulating nearly 57,000 likes in three months (shown below, right).
Ken Jeong Instagram Post
On April 23rd, 2020, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Ken Jeong posted[7] this meme which includes his character from Community, acknowledging his usage in the meme. The post (seen below) received over 48,000 likes in roughly eight months.
Various Examples
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