Greysia Polii And Apriyani Rahayu Congratulation Poster Parodies

2021Image parody / exploitable templatedead

Also known as: Poster Pejabat Nebeng (Politician Hitchhiking Posters)

Greysia Polii And Apriyani Rahayu Congratulation Poster Parodies is a 2021 Indonesian image-macro meme born from politicians' self-serving congratulatory posters featuring their own oversized photos dwarfing Olympic gold medalists, spawning parody variants with anime characters and famous cats.

On August 2, 2021, Indonesian politicians flooded social media with congratulatory posters for Olympic gold medalists Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu, featuring their own photos at comically large sizes that dwarfed the actual athletes. Indonesian netizens roasted the self-serving designs and created a wave of parody posters inserting everything from anime characters to famous cats, turning political vanity into one of Indonesia's sharpest viral satire moments of 2021.

indonesian memespolitical satire memesexploitable templatesolympics memes

Overview

After Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu won Indonesia's gold medal in women's doubles badminton at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Indonesian politicians and officials rushed to claim reflected glory. They published congratulatory posters on social media that featured their own faces at sizes far larger than the athletes they were supposedly celebrating1. The result looked less like congratulations and more like campaign ads. Indonesian netizens quickly noticed, mocked the narcissistic designs, and began creating parody versions, inserting fictional characters, animals, and absurd self-promoters into the same format.

On August 2, 2021, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu defeated Chinese pair Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan to win gold in women's doubles badminton at the Tokyo Olympics1. The win triggered a nationwide celebration across Indonesia.

Almost immediately, politicians began posting congratulatory graphics on social media. The Democratic Party, led by Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY, eldest son of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono), published a poster where AHY's photo took up nearly half the image while the two gold medalists were squeezed into a small upper corner3. Criticism poured in instantly. One netizen wrote: "It's weird that politicians who contributed nothing suddenly want their photo displayed" (translated from Indonesian)3.

On the same day, Twitter user @adriansyahyasin posted a tweet predicting that politicians would design congratulatory posters with their own photos bigger than the athletes. The prediction received over 9,000 likes and 1,700 retweets. Hours later, the same user began documenting real examples, proving the prediction correct. That documentation thread collected over 32,900 likes and 16,100 retweets2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (Indonesian political accounts as source material, @adriansyahyasin as viral spread)
Key People
@adriansyahyasin, community-created
Date
2021

On August 2, 2021, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu defeated Chinese pair Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan to win gold in women's doubles badminton at the Tokyo Olympics. The win triggered a nationwide celebration across Indonesia.

Almost immediately, politicians began posting congratulatory graphics on social media. The Democratic Party, led by Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY, eldest son of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono), published a poster where AHY's photo took up nearly half the image while the two gold medalists were squeezed into a small upper corner. Criticism poured in instantly. One netizen wrote: "It's weird that politicians who contributed nothing suddenly want their photo displayed" (translated from Indonesian).

On the same day, Twitter user @adriansyahyasin posted a tweet predicting that politicians would design congratulatory posters with their own photos bigger than the athletes. The prediction received over 9,000 likes and 1,700 retweets. Hours later, the same user began documenting real examples, proving the prediction correct. That documentation thread collected over 32,900 likes and 16,100 retweets.

How It Spread

The backlash spread fast across Indonesian social media. Twitter account @nksthi compiled roughly 20 narcissistic congratulatory posters from various officials into a single thread, captioning it: "A collection of posters that will lower your immunity. Enjoy" (translated from Indonesian). User @jek___ added: "Politicians are busy calling the print shop to make congratulations for Greysia and Apriyani but their face is bigger on the banner" (translated from Indonesian). Another user, @dickypsy, suggested politicians redirect their poster budgets into donations for badminton courts and equipment in rural areas.

Parodies started rolling in within hours on August 2nd. The Facebook page Doraemon Hari Ini edited Suneo Honekawa, the spoiled rich kid from the Doraemon series, into the poster template with his photo larger than the athletes. Kaesang Pangarep, President Joko Widodo's youngest son, posted his own version on Instagram holding a tennis racket, picking up praise for joining the mockery of the very political class his father leads. Facebook user Sudiro Sumbodo II created a satirical step-by-step guide to designing a congratulatory poster "like a politician," complete with instructions on photo and logo placement, earning 830 reactions and 1,800 shares.

Indonesian webcomic artists also joined the pile-on. Risa Comics posted a parody on Facebook with over 2,600 reactions. Gump n Hell uploaded across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, pulling 4,100 reactions on Facebook, 18,000 likes on Instagram, and 3,400 likes on Twitter. Cartoonist Wahyu Kokkang added his own take the following day.

The Ministry of Public Works and Housing (Kementerian PUPR) earned widespread praise for a self-aware response. They edited Minister Basuki Hadimuljono into the athletes' victory photo at a tiny size, as if cheering from the stands. Their tweet simply asked, "Is this small enough?". Twitter-famous cat Bintik also got a parody poster expressing pride in the athletes' achievement.

The trend extended beyond the women's doubles pair. Bronze medalist Anthony Ginting also appeared in oversized politician posters, though as @adriansyahyasin observed, fewer politicians seemed interested since "perhaps they felt a bronze medal wasn't enough to boost their electability" (translated from Indonesian).

How to Use This Meme

The format is straightforward: take a congratulatory poster layout and make the "congratulator" comically more prominent than the person being congratulated. Creators typically:

1

Use a standard congratulatory poster design with the athletes' Olympic victory as the subject

2

Insert a large photo of themselves (or a fictional character, pet, or absurd figure) that takes up most of the poster space

3

Shrink the athletes' photo to a corner or background element

4

Add official-looking logos, titles, and congratulatory text to complete the political poster aesthetic

Cultural Impact

The meme tapped into a specific Indonesian cultural practice. As Coconuts Jakarta reported, Indonesia has a strong "flower board culture" where prominent figures send congratulatory or condolence displays to weddings, funerals, and other events, with the sender's name printed in far larger text than the recipient's. The politician poster trend was this same impulse translated to social media graphics.

The backlash prompted some government accounts to respond with humor rather than defensiveness, with the Ministry of Public Works' self-deprecating entry praised as the strongest response. The incident also sparked broader discussion about politicians co-opting public achievements for personal branding, with netizens calling on officials to invest in sports infrastructure instead of vanity posters.

Fun Facts

@adriansyahyasin predicted the exact poster trend before it happened, then documented real examples in the same thread, making it read like a prophecy fulfilled in real time.

One of the original politician posters used a recycled photo of the athletes from the 2018 Asian Games rather than a current Olympics image, and netizens spotted it immediately.

Kaesang Pangarep's participation in the trend added an extra layer of irony, as the president's own son publicly mocked the behavior of his father's political peers.

The Ministry of Public Works' tiny-minister edit was widely considered the "gold medal winner" of the parody trend.

Derivatives & Variations

Doraemon parody

— The Facebook page Doraemon Hari Ini used the spoiled rich kid character Suneo Honekawa in the template, fitting since Suneo is known for bragging and name-dropping[1].

Kaesang self-parody

— President Jokowi's son Kaesang Pangarep created his own version with a tennis racket pose, adding meta-humor by having the president's family mock the political class[1].

Satirical design guide

— Sudiro Sumbodo II made a graphic tutorial on how to design a narcissistic congratulatory poster like a politician, complete with sizing instructions[2].

Ministry of Public Works response

— The PUPR ministry created an inverted version where Minister Basuki was edited tiny into the crowd, asking "Is this small enough?"[1].

Frequently Asked Questions

Greysia Polii And Apriyani Rahayu Congratulation Poster Parodies

2021Image parody / exploitable templatedead

Also known as: Poster Pejabat Nebeng (Politician Hitchhiking Posters)

Greysia Polii And Apriyani Rahayu Congratulation Poster Parodies is a 2021 Indonesian image-macro meme born from politicians' self-serving congratulatory posters featuring their own oversized photos dwarfing Olympic gold medalists, spawning parody variants with anime characters and famous cats.

On August 2, 2021, Indonesian politicians flooded social media with congratulatory posters for Olympic gold medalists Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu, featuring their own photos at comically large sizes that dwarfed the actual athletes. Indonesian netizens roasted the self-serving designs and created a wave of parody posters inserting everything from anime characters to famous cats, turning political vanity into one of Indonesia's sharpest viral satire moments of 2021.

indonesian memes political satire memes exploitable templates olympics memes

Overview

After Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu won Indonesia's gold medal in women's doubles badminton at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Indonesian politicians and officials rushed to claim reflected glory. They published congratulatory posters on social media that featured their own faces at sizes far larger than the athletes they were supposedly celebrating. The result looked less like congratulations and more like campaign ads. Indonesian netizens quickly noticed, mocked the narcissistic designs, and began creating parody versions, inserting fictional characters, animals, and absurd self-promoters into the same format.

On August 2, 2021, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu defeated Chinese pair Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan to win gold in women's doubles badminton at the Tokyo Olympics. The win triggered a nationwide celebration across Indonesia.

Almost immediately, politicians began posting congratulatory graphics on social media. The Democratic Party, led by Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY, eldest son of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono), published a poster where AHY's photo took up nearly half the image while the two gold medalists were squeezed into a small upper corner. Criticism poured in instantly. One netizen wrote: "It's weird that politicians who contributed nothing suddenly want their photo displayed" (translated from Indonesian).

On the same day, Twitter user @adriansyahyasin posted a tweet predicting that politicians would design congratulatory posters with their own photos bigger than the athletes. The prediction received over 9,000 likes and 1,700 retweets. Hours later, the same user began documenting real examples, proving the prediction correct. That documentation thread collected over 32,900 likes and 16,100 retweets.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (Indonesian political accounts as source material, @adriansyahyasin as viral spread)
Key People
@adriansyahyasin, community-created
Date
2021

On August 2, 2021, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu defeated Chinese pair Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan to win gold in women's doubles badminton at the Tokyo Olympics. The win triggered a nationwide celebration across Indonesia.

Almost immediately, politicians began posting congratulatory graphics on social media. The Democratic Party, led by Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY, eldest son of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono), published a poster where AHY's photo took up nearly half the image while the two gold medalists were squeezed into a small upper corner. Criticism poured in instantly. One netizen wrote: "It's weird that politicians who contributed nothing suddenly want their photo displayed" (translated from Indonesian).

On the same day, Twitter user @adriansyahyasin posted a tweet predicting that politicians would design congratulatory posters with their own photos bigger than the athletes. The prediction received over 9,000 likes and 1,700 retweets. Hours later, the same user began documenting real examples, proving the prediction correct. That documentation thread collected over 32,900 likes and 16,100 retweets.

How It Spread

The backlash spread fast across Indonesian social media. Twitter account @nksthi compiled roughly 20 narcissistic congratulatory posters from various officials into a single thread, captioning it: "A collection of posters that will lower your immunity. Enjoy" (translated from Indonesian). User @jek___ added: "Politicians are busy calling the print shop to make congratulations for Greysia and Apriyani but their face is bigger on the banner" (translated from Indonesian). Another user, @dickypsy, suggested politicians redirect their poster budgets into donations for badminton courts and equipment in rural areas.

Parodies started rolling in within hours on August 2nd. The Facebook page Doraemon Hari Ini edited Suneo Honekawa, the spoiled rich kid from the Doraemon series, into the poster template with his photo larger than the athletes. Kaesang Pangarep, President Joko Widodo's youngest son, posted his own version on Instagram holding a tennis racket, picking up praise for joining the mockery of the very political class his father leads. Facebook user Sudiro Sumbodo II created a satirical step-by-step guide to designing a congratulatory poster "like a politician," complete with instructions on photo and logo placement, earning 830 reactions and 1,800 shares.

Indonesian webcomic artists also joined the pile-on. Risa Comics posted a parody on Facebook with over 2,600 reactions. Gump n Hell uploaded across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, pulling 4,100 reactions on Facebook, 18,000 likes on Instagram, and 3,400 likes on Twitter. Cartoonist Wahyu Kokkang added his own take the following day.

The Ministry of Public Works and Housing (Kementerian PUPR) earned widespread praise for a self-aware response. They edited Minister Basuki Hadimuljono into the athletes' victory photo at a tiny size, as if cheering from the stands. Their tweet simply asked, "Is this small enough?". Twitter-famous cat Bintik also got a parody poster expressing pride in the athletes' achievement.

The trend extended beyond the women's doubles pair. Bronze medalist Anthony Ginting also appeared in oversized politician posters, though as @adriansyahyasin observed, fewer politicians seemed interested since "perhaps they felt a bronze medal wasn't enough to boost their electability" (translated from Indonesian).

How to Use This Meme

The format is straightforward: take a congratulatory poster layout and make the "congratulator" comically more prominent than the person being congratulated. Creators typically:

1

Use a standard congratulatory poster design with the athletes' Olympic victory as the subject

2

Insert a large photo of themselves (or a fictional character, pet, or absurd figure) that takes up most of the poster space

3

Shrink the athletes' photo to a corner or background element

4

Add official-looking logos, titles, and congratulatory text to complete the political poster aesthetic

Cultural Impact

The meme tapped into a specific Indonesian cultural practice. As Coconuts Jakarta reported, Indonesia has a strong "flower board culture" where prominent figures send congratulatory or condolence displays to weddings, funerals, and other events, with the sender's name printed in far larger text than the recipient's. The politician poster trend was this same impulse translated to social media graphics.

The backlash prompted some government accounts to respond with humor rather than defensiveness, with the Ministry of Public Works' self-deprecating entry praised as the strongest response. The incident also sparked broader discussion about politicians co-opting public achievements for personal branding, with netizens calling on officials to invest in sports infrastructure instead of vanity posters.

Fun Facts

@adriansyahyasin predicted the exact poster trend before it happened, then documented real examples in the same thread, making it read like a prophecy fulfilled in real time.

One of the original politician posters used a recycled photo of the athletes from the 2018 Asian Games rather than a current Olympics image, and netizens spotted it immediately.

Kaesang Pangarep's participation in the trend added an extra layer of irony, as the president's own son publicly mocked the behavior of his father's political peers.

The Ministry of Public Works' tiny-minister edit was widely considered the "gold medal winner" of the parody trend.

Derivatives & Variations

Doraemon parody

— The Facebook page Doraemon Hari Ini used the spoiled rich kid character Suneo Honekawa in the template, fitting since Suneo is known for bragging and name-dropping[1].

Kaesang self-parody

— President Jokowi's son Kaesang Pangarep created his own version with a tennis racket pose, adding meta-humor by having the president's family mock the political class[1].

Satirical design guide

— Sudiro Sumbodo II made a graphic tutorial on how to design a narcissistic congratulatory poster like a politician, complete with sizing instructions[2].

Ministry of Public Works response

— The PUPR ministry created an inverted version where Minister Basuki was edited tiny into the crowd, asking "Is this small enough?"[1].

Frequently Asked Questions