Andrew Tate Memes

2023Exploitable / reaction imagesemi-active

Published March 10, 2026 · Updated March 23, 2026

Also known as: Andrew Tate Shocked Face · Andrew Tate Soyjak · Surprised Andrew Tate

Andrew Tate Memes revolve around an unflattering screenshot of internet personality Andrew Tate with wide eyes and an open mouth, looking strikingly similar to a Soyjak. First published by Business Insider in August 20221, the image blew up as a meme in January 2023 in the wake of Tate's arrest in Romania on human trafficking charges. Twitter users turned the screenshot into Wojak-style redraws and comparison edits, with one tweet alone pulling roughly 157,700 likes in under a week3.

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Overview

At the center of this meme is a single screenshot: Andrew Tate, eyes bulging, mouth wide open, staring at someone off-camera with a look of genuine surprise. For someone who built a following of millions by promoting stoic emotional control and masculine dominance, the expression was the worst possible freeze-frame. Commenters immediately noticed the resemblance to a Soyjak, the Wojak variant used across imageboards and social media to mock men perceived as over-excited or emotionally unguarded.

The image works both as a standalone reaction image and as an exploitable template. Users drop it into comparison formats, place it alongside characters with similar expressions, or redraw it in the flat Wojak style to drive the point home3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Business Insider (published screenshot), Twitter (viral meme format)
Key People
Andrew Tate, @PopCrave, @Bolverk15
Date
2023

On February 19, 2021, Tate posted a video to his YouTube channel TateSpeech titled "MILLIONAIRE TELLS YOU WHY YOU'LL NEVER BE RICH". At roughly the 2:33 mark, he launched into a bit mocking people who took COVID-19 safety precautions, contorting his face into exaggerated expressions to impersonate them. That moment produced the frame that would later define his meme legacy.

The original upload was eventually deleted from Tate's channel. On June 14, 2022, a YouTube channel called Dennis preserved the footage by reuploading the full video. Two months later, on August 18, Business Insider published a feature on Tate's TikTok rise, describing it as "fueling violent misogyny and men's rights extremism"1. The article used the wide-eyed screenshot as its header image, marking the first major outlet to publish it.

Three days later, on August 21, Reddit user samiksha66 posted a screenshot to /r/rareinsults featuring a comment roasting Tate's appearance in the photo. The post gathered roughly 34,300 upvotes over the following five months. Business Insider ran the same image again on December 15, this time in an article about Logan Paul. But these uses were scattered and disconnected. The screenshot sat idle as meme material for months, waiting for a catalyst.

How It Spread

That catalyst arrived in late December 2022, when Romanian police arrested Tate and his brother Tristan on charges of rape, human trafficking, and forming an organized crime group. The arrest cracked Tate's carefully constructed persona, and the internet had an unflattering screenshot ready to go.

The meme first caught fire on Facebook. On January 4, 2023, a user named Eggs Benedict posted the Tate screenshot alongside anchovies from SpongeBob with the caption "i don't know how dudes can sit here and call him 'the alpha male' when he's literally the anchovies blueprint". The post pulled roughly 5,500 reactions and 42,000 shares in two weeks.

Twitter is where the real explosion happened. On January 10, PopCrave tweeted the screenshot and it racked up around 100,100 likes within a week2. The replies became a showcase of viral comparison edits. User @Ice__Bearrr placed Tate next to Meme Man (the surreal "Stonks" face), earning about 53,200 likes. The next day, @36angstroms wedged Tate's expression into the "When I'm in a Competition and My Opponent Is" Squidward template.

The tweet that crystallized the whole Andrew Tate Memes movement came on January 11 from @Bolverk15: "bro how is this the dude people consider to be some savior of masculinity, literal wojak"3. It hit roughly 157,700 likes in six days and kicked off a wave of Wojak-style redraws. That same day, @jorleifur posted one of the first Wojak renditions, picking up around 9,700 likes. By January 12, @kishuswaay221 uploaded another iteration that gained approximately 6,200 likes in five days.

The timing made the joke hit harder than it would have in isolation. Tate spent 2022 growing a massive audience around the idea that emotional displays signaled weakness. His own fans routinely deployed Soyjak imagery to mock their opponents. Seeing Tate himself turned into a real-life Soyjak flipped that entire framework on its head.

Platforms

TwitterRedditTwitter
View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The Andrew Tate Shocked Face works in several common formats:

1

Side-by-side comparison: Place the screenshot next to a Soyjak, SpongeBob character, or other figure with a similar open-mouthed expression. The visual resemblance handles the punchline.

2

Wojak redraw: Recreate Tate's expression in the flat, simple Wojak art style. The more stripped-down the drawing, the more the Soyjak parallel comes through.

3

Reply drop: Post the screenshot as a wordless reply to Tate supporters, hustle culture posts, or "alpha male" discourse.

4

Template insert: Place Tate's face into existing meme formats like the Squidward competition template or pointing/labeling formats.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Andrew Tate was the third-most searched person on Google in 2023, and the Shocked Face meme became one of the primary visual tools his critics used to push back against his public image. The meme operated on a pointed irony: Tate's own audience regularly deployed Soyjak imagery to mock men they considered insufficiently masculine. The Andrew Tate Shocked Face turned that exact weapon around on their figurehead.

Business Insider's 2022 reporting had framed Tate's online rise as a vector for extremist ideology1. The meme gave that critique a visual shorthand that moved faster and wider than any news article could. One screenshot undercut months of careful personal branding more effectively than any op-ed.

Tate's ongoing legal troubles across Romania and the UK provided a steady stream of news hooks that kept bringing the image back into circulation well past its January 2023 peak.

Fun Facts

The screenshot that became the meme was taken from a segment where Tate was mocking other people's facial expressions, making his own exaggerated face the ultimate ironic punchline.

The original YouTube video was deleted before the meme went viral, so most people who shared the screenshot never saw its source context.

@Bolverk15's "literal wojak" tweet, the meme's highest-engagement single post, earned roughly 157,700 likes in just six days3.

Business Insider inadvertently seeded the future meme by using the screenshot as article art months before anyone turned it into an exploitable1.

Eggs Benedict's SpongeBob anchovies comparison racked up 42,000 shares on Facebook, proving Andrew Tate Memes weren't limited to Twitter's ecosystem.

Derivatives & Variations

Andrew Tate Memes Variations

Different takes on the Andrew Tate Memes format with modified content

(2022)

Andrew Tate Memes Mashups

Combinations of Andrew Tate Memes with other popular memes

(2023)

Andrew Tate Memes Remixes

Updated versions with current events and references

(2023)

Frequently Asked Questions