About

Sminem is character based on photograph of Russian teenager Roman Zuev wearing a knockoff shirt with the rapper Eminem on it, with "Eminem" misspelled "Sminem." After being shared on Russian internet and Reddit, the boy became a meme on 4chan boards /int/ and /biz/. In Russia, Sminem is also known as Elf.

Origin

The earliest known post to feature the boy was posted May 18th, 2014 to Russian forum pikabu.ru.^[1] There, the picture gained 15 upvotes.

Spread

The picture was reposted to Reddit the following year on /r/ANormalDayInRussia^[2] on July 6th, 2015, where it gained 971 upvotes. On December 2nd, 2016, it was posted to /r/funny^[3] where it gained 31 upvotes. On May 1st, 2017, the image was submitted to Shitpostbot 5000. ^[4]

Around October of 2016, the picture began circulating on 4chan boards, where the character became a larger meme. Some early threads featuring the picture were posted on October 18th^[5] and October 19th^[6] of that year. The following year, more images of the boy were posted to the board (examples shown below).

In Cryptocurrency Community

In February 2018, Sminem grew into an unofficial mascot for 4chan's /biz/ board, where users joked about him as though he were emblematic of a person who succeeded in the cryptocurrency market. An exchange a Twitter user by the name of @CryptoSminem had with older Twitter user @PeterLBrandt was posted several times to the board,^[7] furthering the lore that Sminem was a pioneer in cryptocurrency (shown below).

In memes, Sminem often opposes the Bogdanoff twins, serving as a symbol of gains and bullish market as opposed to the Bogdanoffs symbolizing losses, bearish markets and market manipulation. The trend found reflection in popular meme videos by YouTuber^[9][10] Bizonacci posted in early 2018 (examples shown below, left and right).

On February 7th, 2018, an anonymous user in /int/ opened a thread for photoshops of the character, to which several users posted their edits of the image as well as other pictures of the boy.^[8]

Sminem NFT

On April 18th, 2022, Roman Zuev, the man depicted in the Sminem meme, announced on his Twitter^[13] account that he was auctioning off an NFT collection surrounding the meme and various images associated with Sminem via Foundation,^[14] a crypto art marketplace.

for the first time online, feast your eyes on the complete #sminem ensemble!soon I'm going to post some never seen before Sminem photos on foundation</a>, verified by <a href="https://twitter.com/knowyourmeme?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">knowyourmeme – follow me on foundation to be the first that know: https://t.co/OEjoAXAyp3#btc #nft #nftart #ETH pic.twitter.com/ZLJtoFSiAu

— Roman Zuev (@thesminemverse) April 18, 2022

Identity

In 2019, following the surge of popularity of Sminem on /biz/ and his popularity in Russia as Elf meme, Sminem's real name was discovered to be Roman Zuev, a Russian native born in 1996 and living in Krasnodar Krai.^[11][12] In 2020, an unknown person, likely an acquaintance of Zuev, created Instagram and TikTok pages for "Romario Zuev," posting videos of Sminem. While the accounts were subsequently shut down, a number of videos of Zuev were archived by YouTube user Ivan Uchaschiisya (shown below, left and right).

Hello, my friends, my name is Romario Zuev. I am 23 years old. I was born in Volgograd, Dzershinsk District. I finished 10 [out of 11] grades and later moved to Krasnodar Krai, Vladimirskiy District. The weather is good here, the people are good. I'm helping my mother every day. Subscribe to my Instagram and leave a like. See you, friendos!

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References