About

Wigga, also known as Wigger, is a combination of the word "white" and the "N-word" racial slur, which grew as an internet slang to reference Caucasian people who emulate the perceived mannerisms, language and fashions stereotypically associated with African-American culture. The slang has circulated the web since at least as early as 2003 and has been used in memetic content since the early 2010s on sites like 9GAG, Facebook, Reddit and other platforms, commonly used to mock white people wrongly adopting African-American culture. The slang is similar to the "Knigga" meme. In early March 2025, the expression became a viral topic of discussion on X / Twitter after a user called American actor Timothée Chalamet "a wigga who is passing as a normal white," spawning outrage and memes about the topic.

Origin

On December 17th, 2003, Urban Dictionary user THE TRUTH^[1] posted the earliest known online mention of the "wigga" slang to the site, describing the term as "a combination of the word white and the racial slur 'n-word.'" The post (seen below) amassed roughly 2,700 likes in 22 years.

An early example of memetic content found using the expression was uploaded on June 9th, 2012, by 9GAG^[2] user jannickskie123, who posted a picture of a white man dressed in hip-hop clothing, captioning it, "Wigger's pants." The post (seen below) received roughly 20 likes in 13 years.

Spread

The term was popularized online over the years, typically being used in image macros, parody content and other memetic formats as it continued to spread in the 2010s.

For instance, on April 23rd, 2018, Redditor Croc_Chiz_Inator posted a Spider-Man Pointing at Spider-Man meme to the /r/BlackPeopleTwitter^[6] subreddit about the rapper Lil Pump using the slang term, receiving roughly 100 upvotes and 10 comments before being removed (shown below).

On July 5th, 2024, Redditor^[3] u/spacecadet501st posted an AI-generated image of a white man wearing hip-hop clothing, combining "wigga" with the -maxxing internet slang suffix. The post (seen below) received more than 850 upvotes and 50 comments in a year.

On March 4th, 2025, the slang became the subject of debate and outrage after X^[4] user @shOoObz called American actor Timothée Chalamet, "a wigga who is passing as a normal white," in a reply to an image of the actor with Kylie Jenner at the Oscars. The tweet (seen below) amassed over 10 million views and 145,000 likes in a day.

On the same day, X^[5] user @baehisn posted a GIF as a reaction to the quote in the original tweet, writing, "he’s a wigga who is passing as a normal white." The post (seen below) amassed roughly 71,000 views and 2,700 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References