Wojak

NOTICE! Wojak was the May 2025 Page of the Month.

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The Wojak
Aliases	Feels Guy
Enemies	Doomer Wojak, Psycho Wojak and Soyjak
Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Appearances
Debut	2008-2009

The Wojak, also known as Feels Guy, is a Polish internet meme similar to the Trollface and Herp Derp. It used to appear in comics similar to that of the Rage Comics, however the comics became more political later on. Wojak memes as a genre have grown to include various remixes and edits to the character -- as of February 2023, a search for "wojak" on this site generates over 200 entries, representing the wide range and variety of wojaks that have become popular online.

He is portrayed as the immature person in some memes.

Etymology

In Polish, "wojak" translates (more or less) to "warrior" in English. The root of the word is "woj-," and the diminutive "-k" suffix may indicate a certain childishness or physical smallness.

History

The first usage of Wojak is currently unknown, but what we do know is that it was the first usage of Wojak (or the Feels Guy) was in 2009, but the first known appearance of the meme that was archived was in a Polish imageboard called Vichan with the file name being "ciepłatwarz.jpg" (warmface.jpg). The earliest archived appearance was posted on 16 December 2009 on the meme sharing website Sad and Useless. Intelligencer describes the meme Wojak's expression as "pained but dealing with it". The image spread to many imageboards, including 4chan, the Italian Pastachan, and the Russian Dobrochan, where by 2011, an image of two Wojaks hugging each other under the caption "I know that feel bro" gained popularity.

Wojak was also paired with the template phrase "that feel" or "that feel when", often shortened to "tfw" or ">tfw"

Some variants paired him with the character Pepe the Frog (with catchphrases "feels good man" or "feels bad man"), in what Feldman describes as a "platonic romance within the memescape".

Web usage

On February 2, 2012, Redditor Voyack submitted an AMA to the r/datfeelsubreddit, claiming to be Wojack from Krautchan. On October 3, 2013, the news site Bustle published an article about the origins of the Feels Guy. On November 19, a Facebook page titled "Feels Guy" was launched, which gained over 6,400 likes in the next two years. On May 22, YouTuber ReluctantMisc uploaded an animated video of Wojak titled "A day in the life of 'that feel when' guy".

On April 2, 2014, a page for "Feels Guy" was created on the Internet culture wiki Encyclopedia Dramatica. On March 14, 2015, the r/Wojak subreddit was launched for photoshopped variations of the Feels Guy image.

Trivia

• Wojak and Polandball were based off of Wojak the person on Krautchan.
• Wojak may have been inspired by the Trollface, due the the original file name "ciepłatwarz.jpg" translating to "warmface.jpg" and it was used as a response to the Cool Face image. It can be best seen in the Forehead Wrinkles.