Verbally Described Meme #75: Chad and Yes Chad Origins (Deep Dive)
To explain Yes Chad I had to explain Chad first
Transcript:
A comment requesting a breakdown of the "Chad" stereotype from one of my previous videos. Chad is a character drawn in Microsoft paint typically placed counter to the "Virgin" character. This originated on 4Chan's r9k board, a prototype board that was created by 4Chan creator Christopher Poole when he adopted open source software created by xkcd webcomic creator Randall Munroe in 2008. The open source software Robot 9000 attempts to prevent repetition in posting by muting people who have reposted memes or copy and pasted text. Effectively r9k was originally a board that required completely original content, otherwise you'd face a ban. The culture of r9k was one of social awkwardness, greentext stories, nonconformity, and disdain for those with active social and sex lives and later would be the subject of much controversy we see surrounding 4chan and related violence.
Chad's creation was in response to the "Virgin Walk" meme that was posted in response to a thread titled "Virgin Signs" On r9k on April 23rd, 2016. Virgin Walk was posted On March 25th, 2017 and in June was later reposted with the first illustration of "Chad". This spiraled into several different comparison posts hoisting Chad up as the embodiment of everything the r9k board portrayed themselves not to be. Chad is signified by his pointy neon yellow hair, red tank top that reads "Ouch!", and green sweatpants. This meme has become wildly successful and has been adapted into many different formats, and is a common source of cosplay. The name chad comes from another online stereotype known as Chad Thundercock, a term coined in 2013 on Urban Dictionary describing someone as "stereotypical high school/college alpha male who is successful with women". This fit into a larger pantheon of names used to stereotype people based on personality and social status, with Stacy relating to the female counterpart of Chad.
The name Chad has deeper history still and was coined in Chicago in the 1990s as a derogatory slang term for yuppie white men in their 20s or 30s living in affluent areas obsessed with social status and upward economic mobility. The Lincoln Park neighborhood, reflecting these ideals, was the subject of two different fictional social clubs created in the early 2000s known as the Lincoln Park Trixie Society and the Lincoln Park Chad Society. Both would engage in mocking roleplay of the archetypes, where Trixie was a progentor term for Stacey, which in a stretch could reflect the Karen popularized now. They would come from the upper northside neighborhoods of Chicago, have old money, go to law or business schools, drive hot cars or jeeps, and would have had sports success at a midwestern state school. The Trixie stereotype came first and is mentioned online earliest in this post from 2000.
Modern derivations of the Chad internet meme can been seen in the Swole Doge vs. Cheems, Trad girl Yes Chad wojack, and the gigachad.
The Yes Chad wojack that was requested was originally known as the Nordic Gamer, that was featured on Twitter in early 2019. This was a subformat of the race baiting Nordic and Mediterranean memes in which various races and nationalities were pitted against each other. Extracting the meme from the racist background it grew in popularity. Commonly the Yes Chad is featured amongst other Wojack style characters, like the Trad Girl that represents traditional values, the Doomer, and Doomer Girl. The Yes Chad often compliments the Trad Girl as they both typically represent traditional values, this is often subverted and many different subformats of the Yes Chad exist.