Example of a single panel Rage comic using many rage faces.

You might have noticed I used a rage face in my last post.   In fact, I’ve used rage faces several times in several different posts. I love rage faces.

What the hell is a rage face?

Essentially, it’s a cross between a meme and an emoticon.  They are generally crudely executed (but sometimes grossly realistic) line-drawings of faces (usually male) showing exaggerated emotions. Rage is only one of them.   By now there are probably hundreds of variations of the different rage faces swimming in the vast ocean of cyberspace, if not thousands.

Rage faces are publicly available and therefore if you use them, there’s no need to credit anyone.  You can upload a rage face, combine them, Photoshop them with other images, or add your own text, making a brand new meme or cartoon.  There are even special programs that let you do this.

Rage faces have been around awhile.   If you spend any time online, most likely you’ve come across Okay Guy, Rage Guy, Troll Guy, the Y U NO guy, the Forever Alone Guy, and many others.  The faces are probably most commonly used on social media or forums the same way “reaction” gifs are used (surely you’ve seen the Michael Jackson eating popcorn one–it appears on every forum whenever drama arises). The first rage face appeared on the website 4chan in 2007.   A year later, the first four-panel rage comic using various rage faces was created.  Now they’re everywhere, but I haven’t grown tired of them yet.  I still think they’re hilarious.

Left to right: Okay guy, Y U NO guy, Rage guy, Forever alone guy.

Here’s an article that goes into more depth about rage faces:

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rage-comics