A bald outline face, drawn to feel something. Has mutated into more documented subspecies than any other drawing on the internet, and shows no sign of stopping.
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My clearest memory of Wojak is not the thing itself but the reaction of the one person in the group who had not seen it. Watching someone see it for the first time was the actual content.
I would add a line to the headnote: the first documented use in Polish imageboard vichan, then 4chan is the earliest surviving one, not the first one. These things are always older than the oldest screenshot.
Sighting, 19 February, a primary school newsletter, printed, page two. Wojak, offered as an explanation to an audience that plainly did not need one.
For the record, the ironic use of Wojak and the sincere use overlapped for longer than people admit. There were years when you could not tell, and those were the good years.
In 2019 I could not have imagined explaining Wojak to anyone. It did not need explaining. Now I have a note on my phone with the explanation ready, for when the young ask, and they do not ask.
For the record — the back of a bus in Leeds, seen 19 May. Wojak, used correctly, in full, with no visible irony. Nobody involved is under fifty.
I was a lurker for most of the 2010s and Wojak is one of the few things I remember posting about. Two lines. Somebody replied. That was enough to keep me around for another decade.
What does it mean? Write it the way you would say it out loud.
