Meme Man
Meme Man, sometimes also referred to as Mr. Succ and 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" 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
- Rage comic – A meme which uses copies of black-and-white Microsoft Paint illustrations to illustrate emotional states
- Vaporwave – A microgenre of electronic music, and visual art style characterized by a nostalgic or surrealist engagement with the popular entertainment, technology and advertising of previous decades
- List of Internet phenomena – List which covers many popular internet memes
References
- 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.
- "Surreal Memes Are the Last Escape the Internet Has". Vice. Archived from the original on 2021-07-30. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
- 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.
- 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.
- "Why Are People Referring To "Stocks" As "Stonks"?". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 2021-06-08. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
- "The bizarre 'Stonks' meme has returned". The Daily Dot. 2019-06-17. Archived from the original on 2021-05-07. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
- Reynolds, Kelly (2019-06-14). "Stonks Memes". StayHipp. Archived from the original on 2021-07-30. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
- Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (February 1, 2019). "Just bought t.co/LJJCD7BAgX oh yeah" (Tweet). Archived from the original on June 14, 2021. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
- "Stankmemes.com owner runs Tesla, Space X". Mashable. February 1, 2019. Archived from the original on September 10, 2021. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
- Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (June 11, 2020). "@engineers_feed Stonks" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 24, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
- Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (June 8, 2020). "Stankonia at t.co/LJJCD7BAgX" (Tweet) (in Polish). Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
- "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.
- "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.
- "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.
- Andrew, Trent [@trentandrewrld] (August 27, 2020). "They're literally the same t.co/G2xzIUeilY" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 20, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
- Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (June 20, 2019). "Stonk tip of the day t.co/tvPodcAtkK" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
- Musk, Elon [@elonmusk] (January 26, 2021). "Gamestonk!! t.co/RZtkDzAewJ" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022 – via Twitter.
- 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.
- 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.
- "Fortnite now has the Stonks guy". Polygon. April 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-07-30. Retrieved 2021-07-30.