About

The Serious Hat Soyjak or I Require Context is an exploitable Soyjak reaction image format based on a series of memes depicting a Soyjak character wearing a boxy hat labeled, "serious hat." In October 2024, a version of the meme in which a Soyjak wears a "serious hat" and a "serious shirt" and points at a picket sign reading, "Take me seriously," was popularized online. This was followed by an edit in which the man wears a "context hat" and holds a sign reading, "I require context," becoming a popular reaction image.

Origin

On April 5th, 2022, DeviantArt^[1] user SoyGemVault posted a Soyjak depicting the character wearing a square hat labeled "serious hat," garnering over 2,500 views in three years.

Spread

The "serious hat" continued to spread over the following years as people made new Wojaks and Soyjaks using a similar hat.

For example, on June 9th, 2023, Instagram^[2] user chudeaux posted a Cobson meme from a now-private X user showing the character wearing a serious hat, garnering over 2,900 likes in two years.

On October 17th, 2024, X^[3] user @ThanksThoth reposted a similar meme from an unknown source, writing, "Cool chud I just found," depicting a Soyjak wearing the same "serious hat" along with a "serious shirt" and pointing at a picket sign reading, "Take me seriously," garnering roughly 19 likes in five months. This is the earliest known user to post the meme.

On October 21st, X^[4] user @SpectralAurora_ posted the meme under the caption, "naming yourself as the canon name of a character in a RPG," garnering over 60,000 likes and 3,100 reposts in five months.

On November 19th, 2024, X^[5] user @supersylvie_ posted an edit of the "serious hat" sign Soyjak, rebranding the shirt and hat as a "context" hat and shirt and replacing the text on the sign to read, "I require context," garnering over 36,000 likes and 1,700 reposts in four months.

On December 12th, Redditor u/iwannaintopolitics reposted the meme to the subreddit /r/196,^[6] garnering over 2,000 upvotes in three months.

On February 26th, 2025, Instagram^[7] user soyjaking posted a version of the meme in which the Soyjak is presented with no mouth, pointing to a sign showing a meme depicting a blank keyboard captioned "ion even got shit to say," garnering over 9,400 likes in a month.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References