“that feel when no gf”
– Anonymous¹⁾

Ciepła Twarz (lit. “Warm Face”) is a reaction image that was designed as the polar opposite²⁾ of Trollface³⁾ on Vichan in 2009, but received the catchphrase of “>that feeling when”, that eventually led to this image being known as the Feels Guy during its prime.

Nowadays, the image is called Wojak (lit. “Warrior”) as it spawned many variants and derivatives in the late 2010s that nobody really asked for. Despite most people considering it a dead horse, it continues to linger with an unusual absurdist community upholding its continued use.

In the late 2000s, the Vichan community began to mock pathetic demotivational posters that rehashed “to uczucie gdy” (that feeling when) by inventing comically absurd feelings.⁴⁾ Concurrently, a neutral “chłodna twarz” (cool face), or “trollface”,⁵⁾ emerged and was named “ciepła twarz” (warm face).⁶⁾

By sheer timing, the reaction image would be associated with “>that feeling when”, mistranslated as “>that feel when” and shortened to “>tfw”. It isn't exactly known when it surfaced, but we can estimate that it was after September 2008⁷⁾ and before “I wish I was at home playing video games” appeared in December 2009.⁸⁾

From there, the Polish user “Wojak” (Wojaczek),⁹⁾ the same user that Polandball once made fun of, shared the meme to Krautchan in 2010 with said “feel” mistranslation. This was later adopted by 4chan and users dubbed him the “Feels Guy” with “I know that feel bro” as the most popular variant. It may have influenced fandom culture's use of “the feels” back then¹⁰⁾ as well.

The story initially ended there, but the 4chan audience changed after the irredentist “Rare Pepe” trend and users started calling him “Wojak”, gaining similar amounts of derivatives and variants. Some noteworthy examples include: the Soyjak, the Boomer, the Zoomer, the NPC, the Doomer, the Coomer, the Poljak, and so forth. Unlike the Pepe meme, it can be argued that Wojak is starting to age.

Soyjak is a variant of Wojak that mocks the stereotypical male hipster look with its beard, glasses, and faux shocked expression¹¹⁾¹²⁾ which, surprisingly, wasn't mocked until right-wing communities began targeting non-conforming men, who they pejoratively called a cuck, “nu-male”, or soy boy, around late 2017.^13)14)15)

The image was first uploaded to 4chan on December 30, 2017, mocking Nintendo fanboys^16)17)18) before a generic form was uploaded,¹⁹⁾ yet the concept is much older²⁰⁾ and may have non-4chan origins.²¹⁾ That aside, the image was solely used for ad hominem attacks, insinuating that the target looks like such.

At some point, an absurdist subculture formed as newer derivatives and variants traced over Markiplier,²²⁾ Jacksepticeye,²³⁾ James YouNiverse,²⁴⁾ John Oberg,²⁵⁾ Tony Soprano,²⁶⁾ etc. This community is very easily identifiable by their odd vernacular (e.g. gem-coal scale,²⁷⁾ “nas”²⁸⁾) and incoherent sentences, though their creations will just look like a “rare wojak” or “incomprehensible” to normal people.^29)30)31)

The Boomer, initially called the 30-Year-Old Boomer, is a variant of Wojak that mocks older millennials for being out of touch. It came from 4chan's “Business & Finance” (/biz/) board on April 22, 2018,³²⁾ then it became a forced meme as it was spammed on every 4chan board in the following month.^{33)34)35)36)37)38)}

It somehow managed to stick around long enough to spawn the “-oomer” variants, such as the Zoomer,³⁹⁾ the Doomer,⁴⁰⁾ the Bloomer,⁴¹⁾ the Coomer, and so forth. The most popular variant is Wojak trying to sleep, which is disturbed by the Boomer mowing the lawn at 10:00am or blasting incredibly loud music at 03:00am.

The NPC, also known as NPC Wojak, is a variant of Wojak that is used to mock or point out the contradictions in mainstream ideas and opinions. It stems from an egotistical 4chan post suggesting that everyday people are merely pretending to be human, like non-playable characters, from July 7, 2016.⁴²⁾

While the post is absolutely delusional, the conspiracy-laden political crowd would latch onto it and gave it a form, two years later, on September 7, 2018.⁴³⁾ Many people were warned about the context,⁴⁴⁾⁴⁵⁾ though it actually had an inverse effect by proving its point⁴⁶⁾ and it even spawned a small $10,000 contest.⁴⁷⁾

The most common format is the “Angry NPC Wojak”, a basic four-panel comic where the NPC is refuted and becomes enraged. Obviously, it's a straw man fallacy, yet sits high on the hierarchy of disagreement when compared to the Soyjak. In 2022, it evolved into “I Support The Current Thing” on Twitter⁴⁸⁾⁴⁹⁾ to be picked up by the egotistical oligarch Elon Musk.⁵⁰⁾

The Coomer is a variant of Wojak that mocks porn addicts, as inferred from his disheveled appearance, an unnerving grin, and bloodshot eyes from prolonged screen exposure. It came from 4chan's “Health & Fitness” (/fit/) board on December 22, 2018,⁵¹⁾ though it took months for him to be properly weaponized.⁵²⁾

He was popularized in a joke pledge which asked No Nut November participants to set it as their profile picture if they fail the 2019 event,⁵³⁾ then it was caught in a journalist's critique of the challenge.⁵⁴⁾ Despite this, the term “coomer” continues to be a popular descriptor or pejorative, replacing “cumbrain”.⁵⁵⁾

“Le /pol/ face”, also known as Chudjak⁵⁶⁾ or Poljak, is a variant of Wojak that is used to mock far-right political takes. It borrow the likeness of two far-right mass shooters who committed the Gilroy shooting and El Paso shooting in 2019 as both perpetrators happen to be bespectacled and chinless (“chinlet”).⁵⁷⁾⁵⁸⁾

The first iteration surfaced on August 8, 2019,⁵⁹⁾ though this mostly circulated as “le kohl face” on Kohlchan.⁶⁰⁾ It was later refined by the Leftypol community on Bunkerchan around August 30, 2020⁶¹⁾ and weaponized in a grand raid on 4chan's /pol/ board on October 1, 2020 that lasted⁶²⁾ a few days.⁶³⁾⁶⁴⁾

In 2022, people noted that far-right Twitter users would unironically state that “Billions Must Die”,⁶⁵⁾ which caused a resurgence of the character in mockery of said phrase. Some examples include “millions must live/laugh/love”⁶⁶⁾ and “millions must fry”,⁶⁷⁾ then somebody had him wear a shirt with said phrase on it.⁶⁸⁾ At some point, the phrase “The West Has Fallen” was included in the mocked phrases.

In November 2020, a black artist named “Ami” designed a black-skinned Wojak,⁶⁹⁾ which certainly wasn't the first, but this specific variant would gain a significant amount of traction on social media around December 20, 2020.^70)71)72)73) Naturally, this angered the far-right white nationalists that had been infesting 4chan.⁷⁴⁾⁷⁵⁾

For a brief period of time, people made similar variants, including the Young Black Doomer.⁷⁶⁾ It's not clear what happened next, but there was an uptick in racial humor^77)78)79) that some dubbed a “Wojak Race War”,⁸⁰⁾ though it's misleading to claim that such humor is a recent development.⁸¹⁾

• The actual Polish pronunciation of “wojak” is closer to “voyak” (вояк) or “vojak”, not “woe jack”.
  • For NBA fans, this means that the Woj Bomb would sound like “Voy Bomb” in Polish.
  • The common Anglicized reading of “Wojak” would eventually lead to it being spelled as “Wojack”, which is kinda funny as shit for trolling reasons. Similarly, “Soyjak” becomes “Soyjack”.
• While it did exist during the late 2000s rage comic fad, these paths never cross since rage comics already had a neutral “Poker Face” and the “Forever Alone” reaction image.

• Pepe the Frog
• Polandball

• Wojak on Wikipedia [EN]
• Wojak on ChanWiki [PL]