# Andrew Tate Memes 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 2022[1], 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 week[3]. ## Origin 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. - **Platform:** Business Insider (published screenshot), Twitter (viral meme format) - **Creator:** Andrew Tate (subject), @PopCrave (viral tweet), @Bolverk15 (popularized Wojak comparison) - **Date:** 2023 ## 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 home[3]. ## 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 week[2]. 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. ## How to Use 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. ## 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 ideology[1]. 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 days[3]. - Business Insider inadvertently seeded the future meme by using the screenshot as article art months before anyone turned it into an exploitable[1]. - Eggs Benedict's SpongeBob anchovies comparison racked up 42,000 shares on Facebook, proving Andrew Tate Memes weren't limited to Twitter's ecosystem. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the Andrew Tate Shocked Face meme? An unflattering screenshot of Andrew Tate making a wide-eyed, open-mouthed expression that went viral in January 2023[2]. Internet users noted its resemblance to a Soyjak and created Wojak-style redraws and comparison edits[3]. ### Where did the Andrew Tate meme come from? The screenshot was taken from a February 2021 YouTube video where Tate mocked COVID-19 precautions. Business Insider first published it in an August 2022 article about Tate's TikTok influence[1]. ### What does the Andrew Tate Shocked Face mean? It's used to undercut Tate's "alpha male" persona by showing he looks like a Soyjak, the exact meme archetype his own followers used to mock emotional or weak men[3]. ### How do you use the Andrew Tate meme? The image works as a reaction image, a side-by-side comparison with similar-looking characters, or as the basis for Wojak-style redraws. ### Is the Andrew Tate meme still popular? The meme's biggest wave hit in January 2023, when PopCrave's tweet alone earned roughly 100,100 likes in one week[2]. The image still circulates as a reaction image when Tate-related news surfaces. ### Who started the Wojak comparison to Andrew Tate? Twitter user @Bolverk15 posted "bro how is this the dude people consider to be some savior of masculinity, literal wojak" on January 11, 2023, sparking the Wojak redraw trend[3]. ### What was the original Andrew Tate video? A February 2021 upload to Tate's TateSpeech YouTube channel called "MILLIONAIRE TELLS YOU WHY YOU'LL NEVER BE RICH," which was later deleted and reuploaded by a channel called Dennis. ### Why did the Andrew Tate meme go viral in January 2023? Tate was arrested in Romania in late December 2022, which sharply turned public sentiment against him. The first meme post dropped days later when Facebook user Eggs Benedict compared his face to SpongeBob anchovies, and within a week, Twitter was flooded with viral edits[2]. ### What is a Soyjak and why was Tate compared to one? A Soyjak is a Wojak variant depicting a man with wide eyes and an open mouth, used to mock emotional or over-excited behavior. Tate's shocked expression in the screenshot matched the archetype so closely that @Ice__Bearrr and others created direct comparison edits. ### How many likes did the biggest Andrew Tate meme tweet get? @Bolverk15's "literal wojak" tweet earned roughly 157,700 likes in six days, the most-engaged single tweet from the meme's initial wave[3]. ### Which platforms did the Andrew Tate meme spread on? The meme started on Facebook with the SpongeBob anchovies comparison on January 4, 2023, then exploded on Twitter after PopCrave's January 10 tweet[2]. A Reddit post on /r/rareinsults had been collecting upvotes since August 2022. ### Who first published the Andrew Tate Shocked Face screenshot? Business Insider included it in an August 18, 2022 article about Tate's rise on TikTok and its links to extremist misogyny[1]. ## References 1. [MILLIONAIRE TELLS YOU WHY YOU'LL NEVER BE RICH - YouTube]() 2. [Andrew Tate Memes - Know Your Meme]() 3. [Andrew Tate]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/andrew-tate-memes Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library