Can someone explain these to me?

[Blood Brain Barrier]

I don't know what they're called, but I'm talking about these black-and-white "faces" which seem to pop up in a lot of posts.

What are they and why do people post them in threads? Recently I've seen them in almost every thread I go to and I have to assume I've missed some crucial happening on the internets in the past year or so, since I have no idea what they mean or what purpose they serve.

Are they meant to be funny? Ironic? Some kind of meme from a recent game? I'm just trying to get a feel for what they are for. I fully understand the role of "smileys": they are there to express the poster's emotion. I can't detect any emotion in these faces nor decipher any pattern of usage in the posts they are used in. I can't imagine the person sitting behind the PC monitor putting on one of these faces, so it can't be for that reason. Maybe I'm being foolish and they don't mean anything at all.

Many thanks,
BBB.

 

[madwarper]

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trollface-coolface-problem

It's basically a representation of how trolls see themselves.

 

[I Stomp on Kittens]

These little guys?
http://alltheragefaces.com/
They are used to express emotions outside of the conventional keyboard faces I guess. Used here for comics: http://ragecomics.com/

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

These little guys?
http://alltheragefaces.com/
They are used to express emotions outside of the conventional keyboard faces I guess.

Okay, I think I get that. But what about these ones?
http://alltheragefaces.com/img/faces/png/fuck-that-*****-scared-yao.png

The third one could just be a sadface smiley. And the other two I have no idea what they are expressing. It just seems weird, I guess. and confusing.

 

[I Stomp on Kittens]

These little guys?
http://alltheragefaces.com/
They are used to express emotions outside of the conventional keyboard faces I guess.

Spoiler: Okay, I think I get that. But what about these ones?

http://alltheragefaces.com/img/faces/png/fuck-that-*****-scared-yao.png

The third one could just be a sadface smiley. And the other two I have no idea what they are expressing. It just seems weird, I guess. and confusing.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/yao-ming-face-*****-please
About midway through the page the first picture will be explained.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/me-gusta

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/forever-alone

Others can be found in the 'Related Entries' further down on the pages.

 

[Berithil]

These little guys?
http://alltheragefaces.com/
They are used to express emotions outside of the conventional keyboard faces I guess.

Okay, I think I get that. But what about these ones?

Spoiler

http://alltheragefaces.com/img/faces/png/fuck-that-*****-scared-yao.png

The third one could just be a sadface smiley. And the other two I have no idea what they are expressing. It just seems weird, I guess. and confusing.

First one I believe is pretty much a "Do not want" face. The 2nd one is the "Me Gusta" face and the third one is the "forever alone face". I'm sure you can figure out what each of those mean

 

[Rastien]

These "faces" specifically "Trollface" has been around for a good... 5-6 years that i know of, it's only recently with the likes of "9gag" that they have become so main stream and picked up by kids.

I'm not sure where they originated from, some would argue 4chan but i can't be 100% all i know is that 5-6 years ago i was seeing trollface on a certain board on 4chan not breaking rules 1&2 yo

 

[RedFeather1975]

I love the faces in troll physics drawings.
Like this one.

 

[launchpadmcqwak]

But it gets bigger than this, people.

These documents link JFK to Watergate!

whover you are in real life, i applaud you for making your account :')

 

[Altorin]

http://alltheragefaces.com/img/faces/png/fuck-that-*****-scared-yao.png

This face stands in for "Oh shit what is that over there?"

This is the Me Gusta face. It means "I really like this thing..........alot......too much.......it makes me happy in my pants" It's used in comics where some silly thing that all people like to do but never talk about

This is the Forever Alone face. It means "I'm never going to get a girlfriend and I'm sad about it

The other one is Trollface, basically when you make someone mad because you think it's funny, that's supposedly the face you make.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

I see.

And no one thinks these weird faces are a little.. well.. dumb? I'd feel like a complete and utter idiot using them even if it was totally called for.

 

[Altorin]

I see.

And no one thinks these weird faces are a little.. well.. dumb? I'd feel like a complete and utter idiot using them even if it was totally called for.

they grow on you.

 

[PH3NOmenon]

You might want to look into the broader concept of what a meme is.

It's pretty interesting stuff.

At a very concise summation on the subject would be that they're basically the visual equivalent to catchphrases you would use in normal conversation. If you ever used the phrase "That's the way the cookie crumbles." in a conversation, you've basically used a meme. Which online would 'translate' into one of the rage-faces.

Vast over-simplification, but maybe it gets the point across.

 

[Altorin]

You might want to look into the broader concept of what a meme is.

It's pretty interesting stuff.

At a very concise summation on the subject would be that they're basically the visual equivalent to catchphrases you would use in normal conversation. If you ever used the phrase "That's the way the cookie crumbles." in a conversation, you've basically used a meme. Which online would 'translate' into one of the rage-faces.

Vast over-simplification, but maybe it gets the point across.

yeah, memes are basically little bits of language and thought that evolve over time. You say something (or draw something in the case of an image meme), and either it's funny, or it's not. And if it is, someone else will use it, and they might use it slightly different, and if that's funnier, it gets used, and if it's not funny, it doesn't. And eventually, shit just gets wack yo.

You can replace "funny" with "novel" or "interesting" if you prefer. I like to laugh though.

 

[Altorin]

Like, for example, I just came up with this Forever Alone picture to give you some idea.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

You might want to look into the broader concept of what a meme is.

It's pretty interesting stuff.

At a very concise summation on the subject would be that they're basically the visual equivalent to catchphrases you would use in normal conversation. If you ever used the phrase "That's the way the cookie crumbles." in a conversation, you've basically used a meme. Which online would 'translate' into one of the rage-faces.

Vast over-simplification, but maybe it gets the point across.

Is that a meme though? I always thought sayings like those were called proverbs.

And proverbs are different in that they have a 'point' in themselves without a particular context. Seeing one of these troll faces doesn't mean anything to me unless I've read the post it's responding to, and even then I don't really know what the person posting the face means most of the time. I could see how it might have lasted a few weeks as a joke, like the one based on that Chinese basketballer's face, but 5 years?

 

[Altorin]

You might want to look into the broader concept of what a meme is.

It's pretty interesting stuff.

At a very concise summation on the subject would be that they're basically the visual equivalent to catchphrases you would use in normal conversation. If you ever used the phrase "That's the way the cookie crumbles." in a conversation, you've basically used a meme. Which online would 'translate' into one of the rage-faces.

Vast over-simplification, but maybe it gets the point across.

Is that a meme though? I always thought sayings like those were called proverbs.

And proverbs are different in that they have a 'point' in themselves without a particular context. Seeing one of these troll faces doesn't mean anything to me unless I've read the post it's responding to, and even then I don't really know what the person posting the face means most of the time. I could see how it might have lasted a few weeks as a joke, like the one based on that Chinese basketballer's face, but 5 years?

A proverb is to a meme, what a crocodile is to a reptile. Proverbs are just old memes that didn't need to evolve any further.

And yeah, these faces are really old. I don't know where you've been. The Trollface appeared first in 2008 (the trollface being the second one you posted that says "Problem?" under it)

 

[4RM3D]

I love the faces in troll physics drawings.
Like this one.

Left guy gets -20 + 30 = 10 (profit)
Right guy gets -20 + -30 + 40 = -10 (loss)

Fail

 

[Altorin]

I love the faces in troll physics drawings.
Like this one.
snip

Left guy gets -20 + 30 = 10 (profit)
Right guy gets -20 + -30 + 40 = -10 (loss)

Fail

That would be why the final face is a trollface. I'm pretty sure we all know it doesn't work, but there's a part of your brain that gets all twisted around math like that.

People fall for dumber things irl all the time, lol

 

[Lionsfan]

I love the faces in troll physics drawings.
Like this one.

Left guy gets -20 + 30 = 10 (profit)
Right guy gets -20 + -30 + 40 = -10 (loss)

Fail

......that's the joke


OT: Personally I don't really like them. Mostly because 9Gag just overused the shit out of them