Which Side Are You On / Bloods vs. Crips

About

Which Side Are You On? or Bloods vs. Crips refers to a series of memes in which an fan art of Bloods and Crips street gangs is used to compare various innocuous things. The format gained initial popularity in ironic memes in July 2020.

Origin

On July 11th, 2006, DeviantArt^[1] user baileybrothaz uploaded an artwork "BLOODZ N CRIPZ ITZ ON," drawn in a style of a comic book cover and depicting members of Bloods and Crips street gangs facing off each other (shown below, left). The artwork received over 16,000 views and 97 favorites in 15 years and was widely circulated online. In the following years, an unknown user reused the artwork, superimposing the images of the gangsters over the signature bandanas of Bloods and Crips (shown below, right).

Spread

Prior to July 13th, 2020, an unknown user posted a meme based on the second image, recaptioning it "Which side are you on" and using it to compare white milk and chocolate milk. On July 13th, Redditor^[2] deadgaming_ reposted the meme in /r/okbuddyretard subreddit, where it gained over 570 upvotes prior to being deleted (shown below).

The image did not see further use as a format until August 17th, 2020, when Redditor^[3] thelastlasermaster_ used the original artwork to create a Random Chimp Event meme, gaining over 26,500 upvotes in /r/okbuddyretard in six months (shown below).

Following the post, the image format gained notable popularity as source material for ironic memes, with users imagining gang members disagreeing over their preferences for various innocuous things. For example, on August 28th, 2020, Redditor^[4] sqautrickfan posted a meme comparing mobile games Subway Surfers and Minion Rush, with the meme gaining over 19,600 upvotes in six months. On August 28th, Instagram^[5] user dankzza posted a meme that received over 14,200 likes in the same period.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References