About

Why Do Slavs Squat? is a satirical catchphrase associated with imageboards and forums discussing Eastern European people and cultures. The catchphrase is usually accompanied by pictures of squatting Slavic people in tracksuits, most time engaging in stereotypical eastern European behavior like consumption of vodka and cigarettes and participation in street gambling. The pose was closely related to the Gopnik stereotype about Russian and Slavic men.

Origin

The exact origin of the phenomenon is unknown. The earliest available appreciation of the squat online comes from the /r/slavs_squatting,^[4] which launched on November 29th, 2012. As of March 2021, the subreddit amassed more than 118,000 subscribers.

Spread

The phrase and the stereotypical depiction of Slavic people squatting and wearing tracksuits was most likely first used in 4chan's /int/ in late 2012. An anonymous 4chan^[1] user on the /int/ board posted the earliest archived reference to the Slav Squat on January 10th 2013.

Over the next year, references to the squat continued on 4chan, particularly asking the question "why do they squat?" On January 26th, 2013, for example, an anonymous 4chan^[2] user asked the question in the /int/ board (shown below, left). Another answered, "slav squat was developed to stay warm in harsh slav winters whilst waiting around for death. but since then it has developed, now its cultural" (shown below, right). That year, on July 20th, 2013 the website slavsquat.com,^[4] a site dedicated to the phenomenon launched.^[3]

Usage of the meme and references to the "Slav Squat" continued online over the decade. On May 2nd, 2016, YouTuber Life of Boris published a video entitled "How to Squat like Slav." The post received more than 9.8 million views in less than five years (shown below, left)On July 12th, 2016, Redditor^[5] Stannisthebest posted an illustration of Pepe the Frog squatting. The post received more than 10,000 points (87% upvoted) in less than five years (shown below, right).

Two years later, on January 13th, 2018, a picture containing a panel from the Marvel superhero comic book Black Widow squatting and two pictures of people squatting went viral on Tumblr. ^[6] Captioned "this images all have a particularly russian aura to them," the pictures received more than 145,000 notes in less than four years (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References