Withered Wojak

About

Withered Wojak, also known as Void Wojak and Depressed Wojak, refers to a black and white hatched Wojak, distinguished by the character's eyes being completely obscured by shade. Starting in April 2018, the image has been used online to convey feelings of sadness, dejection and hopelessness.

Origin

On April 10th, 2018, an anonymous 4chan user posted the earliest found image of a hatched Wojak with his eyes obscured by shade to /lit/ board (post and image shown below).^[1]

Spread

In the following days, the image was reused by users on /lit/, /r9k/, /b/, /biz/ and other boards (post examples shown below).^[2][3][4]

Following it's spread on 4chan, the image gained moderate popularity as a reaction image on other platforms, being used to illustrate feelings of gloom and "being dead inside." For example, on July 11th, 2019, YouTube Pokay tweeted the image in response to having to fulfill a promise to make a Creeper Aw Man tattoo (shown below, left).^[5] On August 8th, 2019, Twitter user @anomalyxd used the image to react to CS:GO patch notes (shown below, right).^[6]

Related Memes

When You're Sad, You Understand the Lyrics

When You're Happy, You Enjoy the Music, When You're Sad, You Understand the Lyrics refers to a series of memes in which lyrics of various songs, usually non-sensical, humorous or upbeat, are paired with an image of Withered Wojak, as if a person listening to them would normally experience feelings of sadness. The image is accompanied by an image macro with the quote. The format gained popularity online in early March 2021.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References