Yao Ming Face

About

Yao Ming Face (sometimes referred to as “Fuck That Guy” or “Dumb Bitch”) is a rage comic-style contour drawing of the professional basketball player Yao Ming wearing a hearty smile. The image is typically used as a reaction face to convey a dismissive attitude towards someone else’s input in online discussions, then usually following something that one ups their input.

Origin

The drawing is based on a stillshot photograph of Yao Ming captured from a post-game press conference in May 2009. At :18 in the video below, the athlete is seen making the face after his teammate Ron Artest leaves the site of interview.

On July 11th, 2010, a Reddit^[1] post was submitted by artist “downlow”^[2] which featured numerous drawings he had created for rage comics that were never used, including the Yao Ming drawing. In the same thread^[3], downlow confirmed that the drawing was based on a screen capture of Ming from the press conference in May.

 

Redditor alkalait replied to the thread remarking that it appeared as if Yao Ming was saying “bitch please.”

Spread

On August 31st, 2010, the face was included in an updated rage template image post in the f7u12 subreddit.^[15]Redditor wallish^[16] replied to the thread referring to the face as “Asian Laughing Guy.”

On September 13th, 2010, a rage comic featuring the Yao Ming face accompanied by the caption “dumb bitch” was submitted to the f7u12^[17] subreddit by Redditor fifa10. The image was often referred to as “dumb bitch” until February 19th, 2011, when a rage comic titled “I let my 7 year old cousin use the rage editor and this is what she made” by Redditornagem reached the front page of the f7u12 subreddit, accumulating 3,990 up votes prior to being archived. Redditor chotheamazing replied to the post calling the Yao Ming drawing “fuck that shit face guy.”

 

In April of 2011, a series of rage comics were submitted to the f7u12 subreddit^[17][18], using the Yao Ming face as a response to discovering spiders. The comics typically end with the Yao Ming face setting fire to an entire house in order to destroy a single arachnid. While several spider burning rage comics did appear before hand the one first associated with the Yao Ming face was by Redditor punkhobo. The original comic was the following one

 

On May 23rd, "dumbbitch"" was replaced with “fuckthatshit” for the Yao Ming face label in the Reddit^[14] rage face comment icons list. The meme has since spread to Tumblr^[7], FunnyJunk^[12] and MemeBase.^[4] Several Facebook^[11]pages have been created for the rage face, the most popular of which “Yao Ming (Face)”^[10] has accumulated 44,628 likes as of February 16th, 2011.

A female version of the meme has also been sighted

Usage

The “dumb bitch” varieties are often used in misogynistic jokes in rage comics, while “fuck that” versions tend to express a more flippant attitude towards an unworthy remark made by someone else. The reaction image can be used with a tone similar to that of the Are You Serious? Face.

   

Left to right: Dumb Bitch, Fuck That

Notable Examples

Rage Comics

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Imitations

The face is often imitated by users on Reddit^[9], who upload pictures of themselves next to the original Yao Ming drawing.

 

Derivative: Fuck No Guy

“Fuck No” Guy is a derivative image of “Fuck That” Guy which portrays Yao Ming with a similar but far more disgusted/horrified expression. The face comes from a rage comic made by Reddit user wholemilk^[8] in a thread titled “Son, you forgot to take out the trash” posted on October 6th, 2010.