Mahusetan Meme Culture

With the Confederation of Mahuset being founded by three Gen Zers, meme culture, the culture that has largely emerged, or is emerging, from the creation, adaptation and sharing of memes over social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Tumblr, anonymous imageboards, such as Futaba Channel, 4chan, 8chan and Krautchan and instant messagers, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype and Discord has proven to be a large and important part of Mahusetan Culture as a whole.

Mahusetan Meme Culture is characterised by political incorrectness, elements of Mahusetan nationalism and a disproportionally large influence of memes originating from anonymous imageboards, especially those who originated on 4chan.

Perfection
Perfection refers to an exploitable image macro in which the character Erik Magnus Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), aka Magneto, in X-Men First Class asks to be shown "the real X." He asks twice, and upon seeing what he is looking for, he says, "Perfection." What he is looking for is generally the punchline of the joke.

Origin and spread
The scene comes from 2011's X-Men First Class. Raven Darkhölme (Jennifer Lawrence), aka Mystique, a mutant with shapeshifting powers, attempts to seduce Erik by showing herself to him as a blonde woman (Rebecca Romijn). Erik responds by saying "I prefer the real Raven." Raven then shifts into the human form she usually presents to others. Erik presses, "I said the real Raven." Raven then turns into her natural blue form, to which Erik replies with "Perfection." On 14 October of that year, Reddit user /u/jstupack uploaded the first variation of the exploitable to the /r/funny subreddit. In the post, Raven turns into actress Raven Symone before Erik says "Perfection.", the post gained 645 upvotes.



In the following years, the format would prove a durable template for various jokes. After various plays on the word "Raven," the joke expanded to include various other "real" objects. For example, on May 13th, 2015, FunnyJunk user gwlk uploaded a variation with Pepe the Frog that gained 1,111 points on the site.



The format grew popular again in 2017 when it was adopted by the Star Wars fandom on Reddit as a means to compare various iterations of the franchise's characters. On 16 April, Reddit user TehFlygon posted a question to the /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit asking about the origin of the template.

Drawgirl
Drawgirl is an exploitable image image of a girl with long bangs, blushing and smiling. It is most frequently used to portray nationalities, expressing ethnic stereotypes and cultural characteristics by dressing the girl with clothing and accessories endemic to a specific country or region.

Origin
The first instances of Drawgirl on 4chan were found on /int/, 4chan's "International" board for cross-cultural exchanges. Maki Badfox, a "drawfag" on 4chan, is thought to be the original artist, although this hasn't been confirmed. In early 2011, at the time when Drawgirl was first gaining popularity, Maki was estranged from the community, making it somewhat unlikely that she was the artist that made Drawgirl.

Wojak
Wojak is an illustration of a bald man with a sad expression on his face. It's often used as a reaction image to represent feelings such as melancholy, regret or loneliness.

Origin and Spread
According to "ask me anything" (AMA) thread on Reddit by a user claiming to be the 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 in May 2010. 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 and the Russian Dobrochan. On 2 February 2016, Redditor Voyack submitted an AMA to the /r/datfeel subreddit, claiming to be Wojak from Krautchan. On 3 October 2013, the news site Bustle published an article about the origins of the Feels Guy. On November 19th, a Facebook page titled "Feels Guy" was launched, which gained over 6,400 likes in the next two years. On 22 May, YouTuber ReluctantMisc uploaded an animated video of Wojak titled "A day in the life of 'that feel when' guy".

Pepe the Frog
Pepe the Frog is an anthropomorphic frog character from the comic series Boy’s Club by Matt Furie. On 4chan, various illustrations of the frog creature have been used as reaction faces.

Origin and spread
In 2005, artist Matt Furie created the comic series Boy's Club, which stars the teenage monster characters Pepe, Brett, Andy and Landwolf. In early 2008, comic in which Pepe pulls his pants down to his ankles in order to urinate is rumored to have been popularized on 4chan's /b/, (random) board, along with the expression "Feels good man". Throughout 2008, Pepe was mostly associated with the "Feels Good Man" reaction image. On 4 February, Something Awful contributor Jon Hendren (a.k.a. @fart) posted the "Feels Good Man" comic to the site. In 2009, an edited version featuring a distraught-looking Pepe with the caption "Feels bad man" began circulating as a reaction image on 4chan and the Body Building Forums. On 25 January, 2011, an interview with Furie was published on Know Your Meme, in which he discussed the origins of Pepe the Frog. On 13 June, 2014, the PepeTheFrogBlog Tumblr blog was launched. On 23 July, the Pepe the Frog Instagram feed was created. On 25 October, the /r/pepethefrog subreddit was launched for content featuring the frog character. On 7 December, a Facebook page for "Pepe the Frog" was created. On December 18th, the PepeTheFrogNet Tumblr blog was launched.

Relationship between Wojak and Pepe the Frog
Wojak has been often related with the character Pepe the Frog, due to their similar expression of sad emotions, an example of the two characters being used together would be in the series of images and comics known as "Poo Poo Pee Pee", which since the middle of November 2014 saw Pepe commit various unethical and otherwise sadomasochistic acts towards Wojak, typically involving urine or fæces, and was created as a reaction towards the usage of Pepe's likeness in various mainstream social media sites. The first instance of the comics could be found on 4chan, with a thread posted on the imageboard /r9k/ thread on 16 November 2014, featuring an image of an obese Pepe with the message: "Poo poo. Pee pee. Now mommy has to change me.". On 28 November, another comic was posted to /r9k/ in which Pepe excretes over Wojak.

Despite the similarities and the relationship between Wojak and Pepe the Frog, differences between the two exist with both memes having forms which simply don't exist in the other, an example of this being the NPC Wojak, which unlike the usual Wojak is implied to be wholly unable to have individual thought. Aesthetic differences between memes using Wojak and Pepe the Frog are commonplace, owing to their seperate origins.

When comparing Wojak to Pepe the Frog, the most common differences between the two are the background colour, the characters' pose, the art style of objects in the meme, and the possible absence of clothing. Memes featuring Wojak commonly have a white background colour with many differing poses and photorealistic depictions of objects while memes featuring Pepe the Frog commonly have a light blue background colour with one pose and crudely drawn depictions of objects.

Dat Boi
Dat Boi (a colloquial pronunciation of “that boy”) is a nickname given to an animated gif of a green frog riding a unicycle, typically accompanied by catchphrases like "here comes dat boi!" and "o shit waddup", that went viral on social media in early 2016. Unlike most other memes featured on this list, Dat Boi carried little significance in Mahusetan Meme Culture, instead carrying political significance following an unsuccessful bill proposed with the intent of declaring Dat Boi the national meme.

CountryLove
CountryLove is a series of exploitable images featuring two girls, one of them groping the other's breasts, used to represent humorous depictions of countries' and ethnicities' relationships on several 4chan boards.

Origin and Spread
The original picture was originally posted on 4chan's politics board /pol/ on 3 February 2015, submitted by an Australian poster in reply to a New Zealander poster complaining about how their refutals weren't taken seriously due to their country's flag. The art features a blonde girl (despicted as Australia) grabbing a breast from a naked brunette girl (depicted as New Zealand). On 11 February 2015, a thread submitted on /pol/ featured an edited version of the original picture, with Australia as the United States and New Zealand as Canada. During the following months, the meme remained dormant, but saw a rise in late May 2016 due to a /pol/ thread submitted on 28 May, featuring the United States wearing a MAGA hat and groping Mexico through a wall. The thread also contained variations featuring other countries. During the following weeks, a template was created and several threads were made, mainly on /pol/ and /int/. On 2 July, an anonymous user titled the exploitable image "countryLove", the name that would be used to refer to the picture from that point forward.

Flagbearers
Flagbearers is the name given to a series of exploitable drawings featuring several standard-bearers. The images are often used to make humorous listings and rankings on countries, ethnicities and other groups.

Origin and Spread
It's believed that the first image was posted in Krautchan's international board in late 2010, comparing Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. However, the earliest known use of a flag bearer image online comes from the Warosu traditional games board, or /tg/, on 25 September 2013. The image had a lineup of 10 flag bearers, all referencing characters from The Elder Scrolls game universe. The image was then subsequently posted seven more times within Warosu.

The earliest appearance on 4chan belongs to a thread from the politically incorrect board, /pol/, submitted on July 19th, 2014. In the thread, the submitter posted a template for several standard-bearers, inspiring other users to make their own versions; the thread eventually acquired over 200 comments.

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