Wojak, also known as Ciepła(Warm) Twarz(Face) and Feels Guy, is a reaction image that was designed to be the antithesis of Troll Face (Cool Face) on Vichan in 2009, but later became associated with '>that feeling when' (>tfw) for most of its prime until the 'revival' attempts during the late 2010s.

The current name stems from a former tripcode user that named himself after the Polish term for 'warrior', which means that 'wojak' is technically pronounced 'voyak' and not 'woe-jack'.¹⁾ Since the term isn't anglicized, it has also been rendered as Wojack instead.

During the late 2000s, the Vichan users would mock demotivational posters as they kept reusing 'to uczucie gdy' (that feeling when). Around this time,²⁾ a user uploaded a neutral 'troll face' that would be named 'ciepła twarz' (warm face), as a reference to the misleading 'cool face' (chłodna twarz) rage comic.³⁾

At some point, the two concepts blended together, which caused said image to be linked to '>that feeling when' (>tfw), often mistranslated as '>that feel when'. The exact details behind the image's spread are lost to time, but “I wish I was at home playing video games” has been recorded in 2009.⁴⁾

In 2010, it's believed that the Polish tripcode user 'Wojak', the same one Polandball makes fun of, shared it to Krautchan with the 'feel' mistranslation in 2010. This took 4chan by storm, so it became the 'feels guy' or 'i know that feel bro', and might have influenced 'the feels' of fandom culture.⁵⁾ The story once ended there, but 4chan's shift and weird Pepe irredentism would trigger a 'revival' as the image became 'Wojak'.

Soyjak is a Wojak variant that mocks the stereotypical male hipster look with a faux shock,⁶⁾ glasses, and unkempt beard, but only after right-wing communities started calling it the 'soy face' in 2017.⁷⁾⁸⁾⁹⁾ The variant was first shared to 4chan on December 30, 2017,^10)11)12) but this might not its true origin.¹³⁾¹⁴⁾

Technicalities aside, these variants were mostly used as an ad hominem attack, which can devolve into 'soydueling'.¹⁵⁾ For some reason, it spawned an absurdist subculture, tracing over personalities,^16)17)18)19) and led to the Sharty's creation. For the average person, these will be 'incomprehensible' or a 'rare wojak'.^20)21)22)

The Boomer, originally the 30-Year-Old Boomer, is a Wojak variant that originally mocked older 'out-of-touch' millennials. It was first posted on 4chan's “Business & Finance” (/biz/) board on April 22, 2018,²³⁾ then it simply became a forced meme in the following month since everyone would spam it.^{24)25)26)27)28)29)}

However, the variant had some staying power as users would unironically relate to the associated posts, which brings us to all of the '-oomer' variants (e.g. Zoomer, Doomer, Bloomer, Coomer, etc.), and those images of Wojak trying to get some sleep while the Boomer is either mowing the lawn at 10:00am or partying at 3:00am.

The NPC, or NPC Wojak, is a Wojak variant that is meant to mock 'mainstream' or institutionalized ideas, pointing out contradictions or a lack of critical thinking. This stems from a 4chan post insinuating that everyone was an NPC in 2016,³⁰⁾ which boomed in 2018³¹⁾ since 'discouraging' it³²⁾³³⁾ proved their point.³⁴⁾

History aside, the NPC is a simple straw man fallacy, a step above the Soyjak in the hierarchy of disagreement. The most common formats are the 'Angry NPC Wojak', a four-panel comic where the NPC is refuted and becomes enraged, and the 'I Support The Current Thing' NPC that political Twitter just loved.^35)36)37)

The Coomer is a Wojak variant that mocks 'porn addicts' with an exaggerated disheveled look, an unnerving grin, and bloodshot eyes from prolonged screen exposure. It was first posted on 4chan's “Health & Fitness” (/fit/) board on December 22, 2018,³⁸⁾ but didn't catch on until several months later.³⁹⁾

His 'popularity' stems from a No Nut November joke pledge⁴⁰⁾ that got caught in a critique of the aforementioned challenge.⁴¹⁾ This had the brief effect of turning 'coomer' into a popular alternative to the 'cumbrain' pejorative, though the term has since been phased out for 'gooning', a trance-like state of prolonged edging.

Chudjak, or Poljak, is a Wojak variant that mocks far-right political views after the Gilroy shooting and El Paso shooting perpetrators were both shown to be bespectacled and chinless (“chinlet”).⁴²⁾⁴³⁾ The first iteration surfaced on August 8, 2019,⁴⁴⁾ where it was allegedly called “le kohl face” on Kohlchan.⁴⁵⁾

Then on August 30, 2020, Leftypol on Bunkerchan would refine the meme,⁴⁶⁾ and raided 4chan's /pol/ board⁴⁷⁾ around October 1, 2020.⁴⁸⁾⁴⁹⁾ By 2022, it has been used to mock beliefs like 'billions must die',⁵⁰⁾ which has since been parodied,⁵¹⁾⁵²⁾ along with the idealist and reductionist belief that 'the west has fallen'.

• Honestly, the anglicized typos of 'Wojack' and 'Soyjack' are kinda funny for trolling reasons.
• While the reaction image existed at the same time as the late 2000s rage comic fad, the two never crossed paths because 'Forever Alone' and 'Poker Face' had already took their spots.

• Pepe the Frog
• Polandball

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