About

Matsuko Deluxe Drifting, also known as Woman Screaming While Drifting, is an exploitable image macro and reaction image in which the face of Matsuko Deluxe, a crossdressing gay Japanese commentator and comedian, is photoshopped into an Initial D meme about drifting. Matsuko is often mistaken for a woman in the image, but it's typically used in memes to express fear or shock at a situation described in the caption.

Origin

On September 30th, 2010, an anonymous user who seemingly created this photoshopped image published it on a thread on /news4vip/ board in 2channel (renamed itself 5channel in 2017), "Please give me an image of Matsuko Deluxe attacking a mountain pass!" (マツコデラックスが峠攻略してる画像ください！)^[1], as an answer to the thread poster, which is during a time when Matsuko had his own designated show time, similar to Jimmy Kimmel (seen below). Then, this image quickly spread via Matome blogs' posts citing that thread^[2][3] and Tumblr.^[4] The original image is also used as the template with bottom text often added for the meme context.

Spread

Throughout the following years, the format spread online through memes as an image caption format with text on top of the reaction. Into the latter half of the 2010s, the image continued to see use on various sites. For example, on February 5th, 2017, FunnyJunk user CharlieChambers^[5] uploaded a version of the meme that had an Overwatch reference to it, showing a surprised reaction to the character Lucio using his speed boost, which dramatically increases the group's movement speed, when you weren't expecting it (shown below).

The template found itself fast growing within various racing subgroups, such as real-world racing and online video game racing. A version of this can be found in one of the earliest examples of the meme on Reddit in which a Mario Kart meme is made about how the racing track Baby Park on 200cc, which is the fastest setting, is a wild ride once the last lap starts. The meme was uploaded on July 31st, 2017, by Redditor^[6] Crimples, who gained over 500 upvotes in five years (shown below).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References