Meme Man
In-universe information
AliasesHead
GenderMale

Meme Man, sometimes also referred to as Mr. Succ or the Stonks guy, is a character often featured in internet memes. He is depicted as a 3D render of a smooth, bald, and often disembodied blue-eyed male head.[1] He was popularized in the mid-2010s by the artist "Special meme fresh", and became a common character in many surreal memes, a genre of internet humor inspired by surrealism.[2][3] During the 2021 GameStop short squeeze, Meme Man was popularized by users of the subreddit r/wallstreetbets as the face of the "stonks" meme.[4]

The first usage of him as a recurring character was on the Facebook page of the artist "Special meme fresh" starting in 2014, and soon spread to become "one of the only consistent stylistic elements" of the surreal memes aesthetic.[2] On June 5, 2017, the artist uploaded an image of Meme Man overlaid on top of a stock photo of a man in a business suit with arms crossed and a chart pointing upwards behind him, and the caption "Stonks", a deliberate misspelling of the word "stocks".[5] The meme went viral and became a common reaction image on Reddit and Twitter.[6][7]

On February 1, 2019, Elon Musk bought the domain name "stankmemes.com" according to his tweet.[8][9] In June 2020, when Tesla Inc. shares soared he tweeted "stonks" and the website featured this meme.[10][11][12][13]

On August 27, 2020, a tweet by user @trentandrewrld comparing Meme Man to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos went viral, accumulating over 400,000 likes as of July 30, 2021.[14][15]

Elon Musk has used both Meme Man and the "stonks" meme as a reaction on Twitter,[3][16] and on January 26, 2021, he tweeted the word "Gamestonk!!"[17] with an attached link to r/wallstreetbets. Immediately afterwards, shares in GameStop rose 157 percent in extended-hours trading, which some linked with Musk's tweet.[18][19]

In 2021, the multiplayer video game Fortnite released the playable character "Diamond Hanz", based on the design of Meme Man, as a joke for April Fools Day.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ Granata, Yvette (2019). "Meme Dankness: Floating Glittery Trash for an Economic Heresy". Post Memes. Brooklyn, NY: punctum books. ISBN 978-1-950192-43-4. OCLC 1135847279.
  2. ^ a b "Surreal Memes Are the Last Escape the Internet Has". Vice. Archived from the original on 2021-07-30. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  3. ^ a b Weissmann, Jordan (2021-01-28). "What We Talk About When We Talk About Stonks". Slate. Archived from the original on 2021-02-01. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  4. ^ Haasch, Palmer (2021-01-29). "What are 'stonks'? History of GameStop-linked meme explained". Insider. Archived from the original on 2022-02-05. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  5. ^ "Why Are People Referring To "Stocks" As "Stonks"?". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 2021-06-08. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  6. ^ "The bizarre 'Stonks' meme has returned". The Daily Dot. 2019-06-17. Archived from the original on 2021-05-07. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  7. ^ Reynolds, Kelly (2019-06-14). "Stonks Memes". StayHipp. Archived from the original on 2021-07-30. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  8. ^ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (February 1, 2019). "Just bought https://t.co/LJJCD7BAgX oh yeah" (Tweet). Archived from the original on June 14, 2021. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
  9. ^ "Stankmemes.com owner runs Tesla, Space X". Mashable. February 1, 2019. Archived from the original on September 10, 2021. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
  10. ^ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (June 11, 2020). "@engineers_feed Stonks" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 24, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
  11. ^ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (June 8, 2020). "Stankonia at https://t.co/LJJCD7BAgX" (Tweet) (in Polish). Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
  12. ^ "Elon Musk weighs in on Tesla's stock again with a 'lol' and a meme". BNNbloomberg. June 11, 2020. Archived from the original on September 11, 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2021.
  13. ^ "Elon Musk weighs in on Tesla's stock again, this time with 'Lol' and a meme". HT Auto. June 11, 2020. Archived from the original on September 11, 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2021.
  14. ^ "Jeff Bezos and His Uncanny Resemblance With 'Meme Man' Could Explain Amazon's Rising 'Stonks'". News18. 28 August 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-07-30. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  15. ^ Andrew, Trent [@trentandrewrld] (August 27, 2020). "They're literally the same https://t.co/G2xzIUeilY" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 20, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
  16. ^ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (June 20, 2019). "Stonk tip of the day https://t.co/tvPodcAtkK" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
  17. ^ Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (January 26, 2021). "Gamestonk!! https://t.co/RZtkDzAewJ" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
  18. ^ GmbH, finanzen net. "GameStop explodes another 157% higher after Elon Musk's 'Gamestonk' tweet extends Reddit-driven short squeeze". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2022-02-05. Retrieved 2021-08-01.
  19. ^ Shead, Sam (2021-01-29). "Elon Musk's tweets are moving markets — and some investors are worried". CNBC. Archived from the original on 2021-08-01. Retrieved 2021-08-01.
  20. ^ "Fortnite now has the Stonks guy". Polygon. April 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-07-30. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
Categories