A rage comic is a short cartoon strip using a growing set of pre-made cartoon faces, or rage faces, which usually express rage or some other simple emotion or activity. They are usually crudely drawn in

Microsoft Paint Microsoft Paint (commonly known as MS Paint or simply Paint) is a simple raster graphics editor that has been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows. The program opens, modifies and saves image files in Windows bitmap (BMP), JPEG, GI ...

or other simple drawing programs, and were most popular in the early 2010s. These

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

s have spread much in the same way that

Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

s do, and several memes have originated in this medium. They have been characterized by

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as an "accepted and standardized form of online communication." The popularity of rage comics has been attributed to their use as vehicles for humorizing shared experiences.

History

Although used on numerous websites such as

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

, Cheezburger, ESS.MX, Ragestache, and 9GAG, the source of the rage comic has largely been attributed to

4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, mu ...

in mid-2008. The first rage comic was posted to the 4chan /b/ "Random" board in 2008. It was a simple 4-panel strip showing the author's anger about having water splash into their anus while on the toilet, with the final panel featuring a zoomed-in face, known as Rage Guy, saying "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-". It was quickly reposted and modified, with other users creating new scenarios and characters. Google Trends data shows that the term "rage guy" peaked in April 2009 while the terms "rage comics" and "troll face" both peaked in March 2009. The range of expression and standardized, easily identifiable faces has allowed uses such as

teaching English as a foreign language Teaching English as a second (TESL) or foreign language (TEFL) and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) are terms that refer to teaching English language, English to students whose first language is not English. The terms TEF ...

Trollface

One of the most widely used rage comic faces is the

Trollface Trollface or Troll Face is a rage comic meme image of a character donning a mischievous smile, used to symbolize internet trolls and trolling. It is one of the oldest and most widely known rage comic faces. History Trollface was drawn in M ...

, drawn by

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

artist Carlos Ramirez in 2008. Originally posted in a comic to his

DeviantArt DeviantArt (formerly styled as deviantART and thus abbreviated as dA) is an American online community that features artwork, videography, photography, and literature, launched on August 7, 2000, by Mathew Stephens, Scott Jarkoff and Angelo Sotir ...

account Whynne about

Internet trolling In slang, a troll is a person who posts deliberately offensive or provocative messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a internet forum, forum, a chat room, an Multiplayer video game, online video game) or who performs similar be ...

on 4chan, the trollface is a recognizable image of Internet memes and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

. Ramirez has used his creation, registered with the

United States Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that registers copyright claims, records information about copyright ownership, provides information to the public, and assists ...

in 2009, to gain over $100,000 in licensing fees, settlements, and other payouts. The video game '' Meme Run'' for

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console was taken down for having the trollface as the main character.

"Y U NO" guy

Another character that is frequently used in rage comics is the "Y U NO" (shorthand for "why you no") guy, a character with a big round head, deep

wrinkle A wrinkle, also known as a rhytid, is a fold, ridge or crease in an otherwise smooth surface, such as on skin or fabric. Skin wrinkles typically appear as a result of ageing processes such as glycation, habitual sleeping positions, loss of b ...

s, thin arms and a look of intense

annoyance Annoyance is an unpleasant mental state that is characterized by irritation and distraction from one's conscious thinking. It can lead to emotions such as frustration and anger. The property of being easily annoyed is called irritability. P ...

. He is also often used in image macro form. He was used on a

billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

on the 101 to advertise a chat platform in 2011 and on the cover of ''The Gap'' in 2012.

Bouzebal

Bouzebal is a popular Moroccan rage comic depicting a teenage boy who dreams of being a football star.

References

External links