Protagonist Versus Yes Chad: An Analysis by Ava Kaviani and Colin Jennings
Despite how prevalent it is on the modern-day Internet, the Yes Chad meme has only been around for about 5 years. This stoic, blonde, bearded man is known for his ability to deflect many arguments made against him with a curt “Yes”. This supposed “alpha” demeanor (confident, assertive) in contrast to “beta” behavior (insecure, dependent) has made him popular among many groups, including many with more politically charged agendas. While Yes Chad borrows from the imagery of alpha-male influencers and “chad” ideals, his current usage serves more as an ironic reaction to these. He has come to represent a voice of self-confidence fighting against the usual internet toxicity and pointless arguments.
The Beginning of A Legend
As with many other memes, the origins of the Yes Chad meme can be traced back to a 4chan board. This anonymous forum is notorious for its influence on memes, internet trends, and more importantly, cyberbullying and hate speech.
However, if we go even further back, we can cite its beginnings to Polish user “Wojak”, from a now-defunct German forum called Krautchan.
Also known as the “Feels Guy”, this simple drawing done in MS Paint spread as a popular reaction image on Krautchan. It was also featured in one of the first “I Wish I was Home” memes in 2009, which depicts the character standing in a corner of a party.
His downcast face. His short, yet all-too relatable thoughts. In this way, Wojak resonated with a lot of people, and more importantly, a lot of 4chan users, as he became their spokesperson- an isolated, awkward, unsuccessful man, just standing in the corner by himself. Wojak memes often depicted this iconic face with a caption such as “tfw (that feeling when) ____ happens”, “I feel that bro,” (which depicts two Wojaks hugging each other), and other lonely emotions. Furthermore, a whole genre of Wojak characters was born, each representing a different group of people or subset of emotions, but often using the same meme formats.
Wojak needed an opponent, someone to challenge his beliefs, and soon, the Yes Chad would arrive. Yes Chad is a strong jawed, chiseled, confident man. His original iteration, not quite so.
The Yes Chad image was adapted from a 2016 meme on the /pol/ board, the Nordic / Mediterranean meme. In this image, the Nordic man is depicted as weak-chinned, balding, and weak, while the Mediterranean man seems more akin to the Yes Chad most are familiar with. The word “cuck” is frequently used on the boards to define a weak, servile man, or one who willingly lets his wife be unfaithful to him.
Within days, several variations of this meme were created showing different relationships between the two characters:
And then, the yes chad is drawn:
The purpose of the original meme was to demonstrate the superiority of the Mediterranean race, but after a number of revisions, the two archetypes were shown as equals.
The figure on the left acquired the nickname “Yes Chad” — a reference to another internet meme. of “Chad”, a man who is depicted as attractive, successful, and popular with women.
The Yes Chad was born of several different inspirations, and by 2019, he would take over the internet with a new wave of memes.
Growth and Evolution:
By 2019, Wojak had long since spread past 4chan and was known in the wider Internet world, and a plethora of different variations of the MS Paint image. Grayons was one such variant, who, in August of 2019, came head-to-head with the Yes Chad.
This Chad is cleanly shaved and now assumed to be a gamer (indicated by the headset), but is undeniably connected to his first Nordic iteration. While the misshapen, somewhat grotesque character on the left is making a somewhat harsh and rude accusation towards him, intending to make fun of his virginity, Chad only replies with a curt “Yes”. He remains stoic, unbothered by the insult.
Yes Chad represents a shift in thinking for 4chan. Though the site is known for its notorious trolling, there was always a touch of sincerity in the “relatable” Wojak memes. These characters portrayed the sadder side of 4chan- those who were struggling in life and with relationships, so they turned towards the anonymous forum as a place to vent. When 4chan users began associating themselves with the Yes Chad instead of the Wojak, however, they saw themselves as the confident, unbothered, “right” opinion, even if the memes associated with Yes Chad ranged from inconsequential to insensitive.
The second example notably shifts the usage of the Yes Chad into a more political sense, using the character to shut down a Wojack that is assumed to be a leftist or socialist. The Wojak’s own words are enough to build the Chad’s argument, and he wastes no breath trying to defend it. Rather, he denies the Wojak an opportunity to argue in the first place.
Yes Chad as a Representation
The meme has been appropriated countless times by different internet users, and the original Yes Chad has spawned countless other thematically related formats. Perhaps the two most popular Yes Chad spin-offs are the Gigachad and the Average Enjoyer. The formats depict Azerbaijani model Ernest Khalimov and Iranian influencer Saman Ghasemzadeh respectively, both of whom have been edited to have comically masculine features that echo the original Yes Chad.
Yes Chad has come to represent the calming voice of reason on the internet. He is the antithesis of petty debate and usual internet toxicity, simply asserting that his side is in the right from his mere presence. He is shown to rise above those who fight in the comment sections of Reddit and other forms. The simplicity of the format and the unshakable confidence portrayed by Yes Chad provides a refreshing break to a lot of people, likely leading to its explosion in popularity.
In many cases, Yes Chad defends an unpopular viewpoint (owning a Nokia phone, for instance), but the memes still get a huge amount of positive intention. Why? Well, as with many memes on the internet, Yes Chad has become so entrenched in irony it is often difficult to tell the poster’s intentions by the meme alone. However, part of the appeal of internet memes is that you do not need to fully understand the intentions behind a meme to appreciate it; the viewer can choose to assume that the poster made the meme in some deeply obfuscated level of irony. This ambiguity is important to the spread of Yes Chad. He does not represent any one side of a debate, he simply wants you to stop pointlessly arguing.
Good Ideas vs. Good Looks
Much of the Yes Chad’s usage is coated in several layers of irony, unserious jokes that are not intended to rile anyone up. However, there does exist a vocal minority of groups who use the character in more malicious ways. The meme format makes it easy to portray the unreasonable side as grotesque, ugly, or worse, a racist caricature, while portraying the “right” side as attractive. Comparing a political cartoon from the 1860s to a modern day Yes Chad meme, the resemblance is surprising.
It may seem concerning that we seem to associate correct opinions with physical attractiveness, however this association has been around for a very long time. As far back as 1866, a racist political advert compared images of a protagonist and an antagonist, with the clear assumption that we should side with the white man over the caricature of a black man. From a glance, it would seem that Yes Chad memes also buy into this harmful comparison. However, while the modern day Yes Chad memes are in some sense, an extension of this idea, they satirize the correlation between good ideas and good looks. Successful, and dare we say, “funny” Yes Chad memes are not the ones making political arguments, or depicting a group in an insensitive way, but mock these meme genres.
The Wider Meme Culture
The prevalence of Yes Chad is very indicative of the direction of internet culture as a whole. There has been an explosion in hyper masculine “Alpha Male” influencers — think Andrew Tate — on the internet that seemingly coincide with Yes Chad. While the original meme certainly spawned from the imagery associated with these influencers, the meme has taken on a life of its own, with Yes Chad attacking the idea of a male hierarchy and binary classifications:
While both Wojacks are angry, one wears a mask to display outward smugness, signifying that they want to continue the debate. In this meme, the Yes Chads know they are in the right, and instead of using their speech to bring others down to hide their own insecurities, they feel confident in bringing each other up.
Even the “Average Enjoyer ‘’ format is remarkably similar to an objectively funny advertisement from 1907: two sides are portrayed, with one being a well-dressed man with defined facial features looking stoically across the page, and the other being a confused-looking man with unfashionable clothes and distinctly less masculine features. While this advert explicitly asks the viewer to pick a side, the simplicity of current meme culture leaves that implied.
We, as a species, will probably never stop making fun of each other and the way we look. We should be cautious about too closely associating rightness and attractiveness, but I would argue that Yes Chad is the most inclusive and charitable iteration of this. He does not represent an ideal person, but rather an ideal in itself. He represents a cool confidence in oneself, a wholehearted belief in an opinion, and the power to disengage from pointless drama. In a polarized political climate on the internet, where people seemingly scream into the void at each other not with the intent of changing the others mind, but generating a reaction, Yes Chad is a remedy. This mindset — the power to not give into other’s desire to get a reaction out of you — is not such a bad thing to seek.
Sources
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wojak
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/yes-chad
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nordic-mediterranean
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/gigachad
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1888727-average-fan-vs-average-enjoyer
https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A65176
https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/news-blogs/what-is-4chan-and-why-is-it-controversial/