Wojak
About
Feels Guy, also known as Wojak, is an MS Paint illustration of a bald man with a sad expression on his face. It is often used as a reaction image to represent feelings such as melancholy, regret or loneliness. Wojak memes as a genre have grown to include various remixes and edits to the character -- as of February 2023, a search for "wojak" on this site generates over 200 entries, representing the wide range and variety of wojaks that have become popular online.
Origin
The exact origin of the Wojak illustration is unknown. On December 16th, 2009, the earliest known I Wish I Was at Home MS Paint comic was submitted to the internet humor site Sad and Useless,[9] which features the Wojak character standing in a corner at a party (shown below).
According to "ask me anything" (AMA) thread on Reddit[1] by a user claiming to be Krautchan user Wojak, the bald man illustration was originally discovered on the imageboard Vichan with the filename "twarz.jpg." The image was subsequently popularized as a reaction image after Wojak submitted it to the German language image board Krautchan, with the earliest archived post appearing on April 26th, 2010 (shown below).
Soon after, the picture became known as “Wojak’s face” and “ciepła twarz” (“warm face”). The image spread to other international image boards, including the Italian Pastachan[3] and the Russian Dobrochan.
In Polish, "wojak" translates (more or less) to "warrior" in English. The root of the word is "woj-," and the diminutive "-k"suffix may indicate a certain childishness or physical smallness.[10]
Spread
On February 2nd, 2012, Redditor Voyack submitted an AMA to the /r/datfeel[2] subreddit, claiming to be Wojack from Krautchan. On October 3rd, 2013, the news site Bustle[6] published an article about the origins of the Feels Guy. On November 19th, a Facebook[8] page titled "Feels Guy" was launched, which gained over 6,400 likes in the next two years. On May 22nd, YouTuber ReluctantMisc uploaded an animated video of Wojak titled "A day in the life of 'that feel when' guy" (shown below).
On April 2nd, 2014, a page for "Feels Guy" was created on the Internet culture wiki Encyclopedia Dramatica.[5] On March 14th, 2015, the /r/Wojak[7] subreddit was launched for photoshopped variations of the Feels Guy image.
Going into the late 2010s, a variety of Wojak variations emerged which saw the character drift away from his chan-culture origins. "Wojak Comics":Wojak Comics linked the character with other famous meme characters, often using his highly emotive face as a counterpoint to the stoicism of Yes Chad and others.
By 2022, a wide variety of Wojak-based meme characters had emerged -- enough that Wojaks themselves could constitute a vocabulary to articulate highly sophisticated stories and arguments. For example, Redditor u/perpetualhillman posted a 7 × 7 political compass grid meme on September 5th, 2022, representing the types of people they had met during a trip to Ukraine as the Russian war against that country unfolded. Each personality in the meme is represented by a different Wojak or Wojak-adjacent character.[11]
Various Examples
I Know That Feel Bro
“I Know That Feel Bro” (also known as “to uczucie” or “to uczócie”) is an Internet slang expression used to convey empathy towards or agree with someone else’s feeling or opinion. The expression, which roughly means “I feel you, bro,” is typically accompanied by a image of two Wojak embracing each other expressionlessly.
I Wish I Was At Home
I Wish I Was At Home (Playing Videogames) is an exploitable comic series featuring Wojak in which the subject is depicted as anxious and uncomfortable at parties and other social situations.
Country Feels
Country Feels is a series of customized illustrations featuring Wojak sitting at a computer desk surrounded by various stereotypes associated with a particular country or region. Many of the images bear similarities to the “How People View Me” two-pane cartoons.
Wojak Comics
Wojak Comics to a series of memes depicting simple interactions between various Wojak characters. Combining elements of comics and Wojak memes, the format was spawned by the Yes Chad meme format in August 2019 and has since grown into a variety of similar comic formats.
![Rightist Conspiracy Theories THE JEWS ARE CONTROLLING THE WORLD NOO!! WE HAVE TO WITH THE FREEMASONS AND DEMON BURN THE MASKS ALIENS THE EARTH IS FLAT AND NASA COVID IS FAKE!!1 WORKS FOR THE DEEP STATE WITH GEORGE SOROS AND BY CHIN HUMAN WORKER EPSTEIN W ОКАY BЕC JFK'S GHO TRUST TherLAIvinuST THE PLAN TRUST LIE MANUFACTURED ES TO CULL THE S SERVE AS ULTS WITH JEFF HIMSELF BUT ITS STEAMING UP WITH THEM WWG1WGA %3D Leftist Conspiracy Theories " I'm pretty sure the CIA had something to do with [insert assasination/coup here] we know, they admitted it in 1978](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/054/541/757.jpg "pink wojaks (right wing conspiracists) vs wojaks (left wing conspiracists)")
Smug Wojak
Smug Wojak refers to a drawing of a bald man with a smug expression on his face that resembles Wojak, inspired by the Smug Frog images. Appearing on /r9k/ and [s4s] in early August 2014, Smug Wojak is normally used to express positive feelings. It also spawned some derivatives, listed on the [s4s] wiki.[4]
Relation with Pepe the Frog
In the early 2010s, Wojak was related with the character Pepe the Frog, mainly with the Sad Frog variant due their expression of sad emotions. In middle November 2014, Wojak started being paired with Smug Frog on a series of comics named Poo Poo Pee Pee, in which Pepe commits various unethical acts towards Wojak, typically involving urine or feces, and created as a reaction towards the usage of Pepe’s likeness in various mainstream social media sites.
Search Interest
External References
[1] /r/datfeel – IAmA Wojak/Voyack/Вояк – Guy who felt first feel. AMAA
[2] /r/datfeel – IAmA Wojak/Voyack/Вояк – Guy who felt first feel. AMAA
[3] Pastachan (via Wayback Machine) – ITT that feel when krautchan /int/ is down
[4] [s4s] wiki – Smug Wojak
[5] Encyclopedia Dramatica – Feels Guy (page unavailable)
[6] Bustle – Meme Origins
[7] Reddit – /r/Wojak (page unavailable)
[9] Wayback Machine – Sad and Useless
[10] Cambridge Dictionary – wojownik
[11] Reddit – This year I've spent four non-consecutive weeks in Ukraine and three non-consecutive weeks in five other European countries. Here's a 7×7 wojak compass of people I met during that time
![>"Instead of answering, he handed me a couple of hastily scribbled sheets. [...] I could not see any connection between this extraordinary description and the study of architecture, so I asked what it was supposed to be. "A play,' replied Adolf. Then, in stirring words, he described the action to me. Unfortunately, I have long since forgotten it. I remember only that it was set in the Bavarian mountains at the time of the bringing of Christianity to those parts. I would have liked to have asked Adolf whether his studies in the Academy left him so much free time that he could write dramas, too, but I knew how sensitive he was about everything pertaining to his chosen profession" p. 158 >"he was anxious to escape the atmosphere that prevailed at home. The idea that he, a young man of eighteen, should continue to be kept by his mother had become unbearable to him. On the one hand, he loved his mother above everything: she was the only person on earth to whom he felt really close, and she reciprocated his feeling to some extent, although she was deeply disturbed by her son's unusual nature, however proud she was at times of him. He is different from us," she used to say" p. 124 >"At the beginning of February, Adolf returned to Vienna. His address remained the same, he told me when he left [...] I helped him carry his luggage to the station, four cases altogether unless I mistaken, every one of them very heavy. I asked him what they contained, and he answered all of my belongings. They were almost entirely books." p. 147 >"Many other qualities which are characteristic of youth were lacking in him: a carefree letting go of himself, living only for the day, the happy attitude of what is to be, will be'. His idea was that these were things that did not become a young man" p.43 >"He wallowed deeper and deeper in self-criticism. Yet it only needed the lightest touch - as when one flicks on the light and everything becomes brilliantly clear - for his self-accusation to become an accusation against the times, against the whole world. Choking with his catalogue of hates, he would pour his fury over everything, against mankind in general who did not understand him, who did not appreciate him and by whom he was persecuted" p. 158 / 159 44 >"There was a strange contradiction which always struck me: all his thoughts and ambitions were directed towards the problem of how to help the masses, the simple, the decent but under-priveleged people with whom he identified himself - they were ever-present in his thoughts - but in actual fact he always avoided any contact with people" p. 164 >"Adolf set great store by good manners and correct behaviour. He observed with painstaking punctiliousness the rules of social conduct, however little he thought of society itself" p.38 O >"But in money matters Adolf was very precise. I never knew how much, or rather, how little, money he had. Doubtless he was secretly ashamed of it. Occasionally the anger got the better of him and he would shout with fury, 'Isn't this a dog's life?". Nevertheless he was happy and contented when we could go once more to the opera, or listen to a concert, or read an interesting book" p. 155 On his loneliness and solitary nature >"Although he always felt a sense of responsibility for everything that happened, he was always a lonely and solitary man, determined to reply upon himself, and so to reach his goal" p. 165 >"He had no comprehension of enjoyment of life as others knew it. He did not smoke, he did not drink, and in Vienna, for instance, he lives for days on milk and bread only" p.39 >"In class he rarely came to anybody's notice. He had no friends, contrary to primary school, and wanted none" p.59 >tfw you're Hitler](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/002/670/561/157.jpg "Hitler wojak")
Top Comments
Pat Bateman
Jul 09, 2015 at 05:13PM EDT
Reggie Amiibo
Jul 10, 2015 at 12:07PM EDT