Twitter User Claiming To Be Originator Of 'Chad' Meme Goes Viral. Don't Believe Them

One of the appeals of the internet is that you can just go on it and tell lies. One person who understands this very well is Twitter user @dj_rozwell, who is currently racking up retweets and congratulatory replies after claiming to be the creator of the iconic Chad face from the Virgin vs. Chad meme.

hey! i was wondering when someone would notice this! i am the original creator of the "chad" picture. my roommate at the time was from chad so i designed the guy's head to be shaped like that as a tribute to my roommate. he has tried to sue me about this https://t.co/yGCnjcR5Tn

— 🪱🧙‍♂️ (@dj_rozwell) September 22, 2021

To be clear, @dj_rozwell is lying. They are responding to an oft-noted coincidence that meme-Chad's head is vaguely shaped like the country Chad. They fill in a little bit of lore by saying they designed meme-Chad as "a tribute to their roommate" who is from Chad, though they sort of give the game away by alleging the roommate tried to sue them over this.

The original creator of Chad is still unknown, which lends some plausibility to @dj_rozwell's claim. As the congratulations and thanks rolled in, @dj_rozwell gamely kept the ruse up by responding to the congratulations and well-wishes they received by imitating the humble tone of a meme originator.

yes, but i want to be clear that i do not condone the current usage of the character. i think all opinions are valuable, and the original purpose was not to disparage or denigrate anybody else's viewpoints 😌

— 🪱🧙‍♂️ (@dj_rozwell) September 22, 2021

i try to avoid doing bits these days, they often go awry

— 🪱🧙‍♂️ (@dj_rozwell) September 22, 2021

Still, for online veterans, it was obvious that @dj_rozwell was doing a little bit of trolling. Long-time followers of @dj_rozwell recognized what they were doing right away because it wasn't the first time they pulled this trick. In May of 2020, the account had a brief moment in the sun after claiming they originated the Navy Seal Copypasta. Again, they introduced a litigious element, including several fake DMs from people regarding a supposed Navy Seal Copypasta lawsuit.

never talked about this before but i wrote the navy seals copypasta https://t.co/tM2Fuxwyi7

— 🪱🧙‍♂️ (@dj_rozwell) May 27, 2020

do you guys know anything about lawyers? like do i need one here or pic.twitter.com/Nj8BxUdIJw

— 🪱🧙‍♂️ (@dj_rozwell) May 28, 2020

stop asking about book/film rights….this meme doesn't belong to me. it belongs to the people. pic.twitter.com/LLkbeoNltw

— 🪱🧙‍♂️ (@dj_rozwell) May 28, 2020

Ultimately, they copped to making up their claim to the copypasta the next day.

this was all a lie lol sorry for lying https://t.co/IXjnoYp8Tb

— 🪱🧙‍♂️ (@dj_rozwell) May 28, 2020

In the thread where @dj_rozwell laid claim to Chad, users in the know referenced the Navy Seal Copypasta debacle, and @dj_rozwell posted some images acknowledging their catch.

ive been making this face the entire past hour pic.twitter.com/emdt9soyQ8

— 🪱🧙‍♂️ (@dj_rozwell) September 22, 2021

pic.twitter.com/tBE4C2d2JI

— 🪱🧙‍♂️ (@dj_rozwell) September 23, 2021

Despite @dj_rozwell's winks towards their prank, a significant amount of people have been uncritically spreading their claim. At the time of writing, their tweet laying claim to the Chad meme has been retweeted over 8,000 times and has over 70,000 likes. If you stumble across it in the wild, just know it's a little bit of a devious flim-flam.