About

Smugler or 12-Year-Old Student's Smug Hitler Drawing also known as I Don't Appreciate You is a drawing of Adolf Hitler with a smug expression on his face that became known as "Smugler," a portmanteau of "smug" and "Hitler." The drawing was originally posted online in June 2023 when it was reported that a Jewish teacher resigned after a 12-year-old student gave him the drawing along with an antisemitic note. Smugler became the subject of memes throughout the month as an exploitable as users photoshopped the face in various ways.

Origin

On June 16th, 2023, Insider^[1] reported that a 12-year-old Massachusetts boy was facing a misdemeanor charge of alleged criminal harassment for giving a Jewish teacher at Nessacus Regional Middle School, Morrison Robblee, an antisemitic note that said, among other things, "I don't appreciate you" and a drawing of Hitler (shown below) following a pattern of growing antisemitism from the boy, including an incident that past April where the student made "hateful comments" to the teacher for wearing a Jewish kippah during Passover. The teacher resigned after receiving the note, feeling that the administration wasn't taking his claims seriously, telling the New York Post^[2] on June 19th, “I am not bothered by the ignorant comments of a child, I am bothered that, without proper intervention, this hate will continue to fester.” The Dalton Police Department charged the student in juvenile court that prior Tuesday, June 12th.

That day around 10:30 AM, the story was shared on 4chan's^[3] /pol/ board, receiving over 400 replies. One anon commented, ">smug Hitler, fantastic" and another commented, "Smugler?" marking the first known use of the nickname online.

Spread

Smugler became the subject of memes on 4chan and Twitter over the following days, largely as an exploitable. On June 19th, 2023, several anonymous /pol/^[4][5] users started threads that inspired numerous photoshops using the character, sometimes alongside phrases from the student's note like "I don't appreciate you" and "Manbun? No cap" (examples shown below).

That day, the @nypost's Twitter^[6] account shared the story, garnering over 4,700 likes in a day. The tweet inspired several memes in the comments section, including a Freedom of Speech meme posted by Twitter^[7] user @Aristos_Revenge that day garnering over 8,000 likes in a day (shown below). Later that day, an anon on /pol/^[8] posted a thread to determine the name of the drawing, with many suggesting "Smugler" as the best option.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References