Hello Human Resources

2013Exploitable webcomic / image macrosemi-active

Also known as: Know the Work Rules

Hello Human Resources is a 2013 two-panel webcomic exploitable depicting a woman warmly accepting a compliment from an attractive man but calling HR on an unattractive one.

"Hello, Human Resources?!" is a two-panel webcomic meme that satirizes perceived double standards in workplace interactions based on physical attractiveness. Created by Sunny Street Comics artist Max Garcia in September 2013, the comic shows a woman receiving the same compliment from an attractive man and an unattractive man, reacting warmly to the first and calling HR on the second1. The format took off in early 2019 when Reddit's r/bonehurtingjuice community began remixing it into absurdist edits, and it quickly spread across meme communities as a versatile exploitable template3.

work memesexploitable templateswebcomic memeshypocrisy memesgender stereotype memes

Overview

The "Hello, Human Resources?!" meme uses a two-panel comic layout to set up a punchline around workplace hypocrisy2. In the top panel, labeled "appropriate," a conventionally attractive man says something to a female coworker and gets a positive response like "Awww, you're sweet"1. In the bottom panel, labeled "inappropriate," a less attractive man says the exact same thing, prompting the woman to pick up her phone and call Human Resources3.

The humor works on two levels. In its original form, it points out how identical behavior gets judged differently based on who's doing it, a dynamic similar to the "Be Attractive, Don't Be Unattractive" trope from comedy3. But in its remixed versions, creators swap out the dialogue for increasingly absurd or wholesome statements, turning the double standard setup into a vehicle for jokes about music taste, niche hobbies, or completely unrelated topics2.

On September 16, 2013, artist Max Garcia published a comic titled "Know the Work Rules" as part of his Sunny Street Comics strip3. The comic depicted a conventionally attractive man and an unattractive man both complimenting their female coworker on her appearance. The woman responds positively to the attractive man but reaches for the phone to call Human Resources when the unattractive man says the same thing1. The two panels are explicitly labeled "appropriate" and "inappropriate" workplace behavior3.

For the next several years, the comic circulated on Facebook and Reddit at a low level, picking up occasional reposts but not much in the way of creative edits3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Sunny Street Comics (webcomic), Reddit (viral spread)
Key People
Max Garcia
Date
2013

On September 16, 2013, artist Max Garcia published a comic titled "Know the Work Rules" as part of his Sunny Street Comics strip. The comic depicted a conventionally attractive man and an unattractive man both complimenting their female coworker on her appearance. The woman responds positively to the attractive man but reaches for the phone to call Human Resources when the unattractive man says the same thing. The two panels are explicitly labeled "appropriate" and "inappropriate" workplace behavior.

For the next several years, the comic circulated on Facebook and Reddit at a low level, picking up occasional reposts but not much in the way of creative edits.

How It Spread

The first notable edit surfaced on November 4, 2017, when Instagram user worstigaccount posted a version where the male coworkers asked the woman whether she listened to Maroon 5 or Radiohead. On May 5, 2018, Redditor Bradley_Haran created a Star Wars-themed version that pulled in over 290 upvotes. The template also got submitted to ShitpostBot 5000 on June 3, 2018, opening it up to automated meme generation.

The real breakout came on January 20, 2019. Two posts hit Reddit on the same day: Redditor FrickDragon shared the unedited original to r/justneckbeardthings, where it earned over 520 upvotes, and Redditor Fifouxxe posted a bone hurting juice edit to r/bonehurtingjuice that exploded to over 26,300 upvotes. That single post kicked off a wave of remixes within the subreddit, with users competing to find the most unexpected or wholesome rewrites of the dialogue.

By August 2019, a specific subgenre had emerged: versions where the two men ask about the woman's music preferences. These edits gained traction in r/hiphopcirclejerk and other music meme communities, with the joke typically being that one man likes a mainstream artist while the other mentions something obscure or critically acclaimed. The format also spread to Russian-language internet communities, where it was used to highlight absurd workplace rules in Western corporate culture.

How to Use This Meme

The template is simple to customize. Take the original two-panel layout and replace the speech bubbles:

1

Top panel (attractive man): Write a statement, question, or opinion. The woman responds positively.

2

Bottom panel (unattractive man): Write the exact same statement. The woman calls HR.

Cultural Impact

The meme tapped into ongoing conversations about workplace behavior, attractiveness bias, and corporate HR culture. In its original form, it drew from the comedy trope that social rules get applied unevenly based on looks, a sentiment that found an audience in communities like r/justneckbeardthings and incel-adjacent spaces.

But the r/bonehurtingjuice community flipped this dynamic entirely. By stripping out the original social commentary and replacing it with absurdist rewrites, they turned a somewhat bitter comic into a playground for creative humor. This transformation is a textbook example of how meme communities can take a format's original message and redirect it completely.

The format also found a home in music meme communities, where it became a way to joke about genre snobbery and guilty pleasures without the original comic's gender politics.

Fun Facts

The original comic ran as part of Sunny Street Comics, a syndicated comic strip, not as a standalone meme. Max Garcia likely never anticipated it becoming an exploitable template.

The r/bonehurtingjuice subreddit, which gave the meme its biggest boost, is specifically dedicated to misinterpreting meme templates as literally as possible.

The meme sat relatively dormant for over five years (2013-2019) before its viral moment, making it a late bloomer in meme terms.

Russian meme communities adopted the format to parody perceived absurdities in Western corporate HR policies.

Derivatives & Variations

Bone hurting juice edits:

Literal reinterpretations where the dialogue makes no logical sense, stripping the comic of its original meaning. The January 2019 edit by Fifouxxe with 26,300 upvotes launched this entire subgenre[3].

Music preference variants:

Versions where the men ask about the woman's taste in artists, popular in r/hiphopcirclejerk starting August 2019[3].

Star Wars edits:

Fandom-specific versions, including Bradley_Haran's May 2018 Reddit post with 290+ upvotes[3].

ShitpostBot 5000 generations:

Randomized versions created after the template was submitted to the bot in June 2018[3].

Frequently Asked Questions

Hello Human Resources

2013Exploitable webcomic / image macrosemi-active

Also known as: Know the Work Rules

Hello Human Resources is a 2013 two-panel webcomic exploitable depicting a woman warmly accepting a compliment from an attractive man but calling HR on an unattractive one.

"Hello, Human Resources?!" is a two-panel webcomic meme that satirizes perceived double standards in workplace interactions based on physical attractiveness. Created by Sunny Street Comics artist Max Garcia in September 2013, the comic shows a woman receiving the same compliment from an attractive man and an unattractive man, reacting warmly to the first and calling HR on the second. The format took off in early 2019 when Reddit's r/bonehurtingjuice community began remixing it into absurdist edits, and it quickly spread across meme communities as a versatile exploitable template.

work memes exploitable templates webcomic memes hypocrisy memes gender stereotype memes

Overview

The "Hello, Human Resources?!" meme uses a two-panel comic layout to set up a punchline around workplace hypocrisy. In the top panel, labeled "appropriate," a conventionally attractive man says something to a female coworker and gets a positive response like "Awww, you're sweet". In the bottom panel, labeled "inappropriate," a less attractive man says the exact same thing, prompting the woman to pick up her phone and call Human Resources.

The humor works on two levels. In its original form, it points out how identical behavior gets judged differently based on who's doing it, a dynamic similar to the "Be Attractive, Don't Be Unattractive" trope from comedy. But in its remixed versions, creators swap out the dialogue for increasingly absurd or wholesome statements, turning the double standard setup into a vehicle for jokes about music taste, niche hobbies, or completely unrelated topics.

On September 16, 2013, artist Max Garcia published a comic titled "Know the Work Rules" as part of his Sunny Street Comics strip. The comic depicted a conventionally attractive man and an unattractive man both complimenting their female coworker on her appearance. The woman responds positively to the attractive man but reaches for the phone to call Human Resources when the unattractive man says the same thing. The two panels are explicitly labeled "appropriate" and "inappropriate" workplace behavior.

For the next several years, the comic circulated on Facebook and Reddit at a low level, picking up occasional reposts but not much in the way of creative edits.

Origin & Background

Platform
Sunny Street Comics (webcomic), Reddit (viral spread)
Key People
Max Garcia
Date
2013

On September 16, 2013, artist Max Garcia published a comic titled "Know the Work Rules" as part of his Sunny Street Comics strip. The comic depicted a conventionally attractive man and an unattractive man both complimenting their female coworker on her appearance. The woman responds positively to the attractive man but reaches for the phone to call Human Resources when the unattractive man says the same thing. The two panels are explicitly labeled "appropriate" and "inappropriate" workplace behavior.

For the next several years, the comic circulated on Facebook and Reddit at a low level, picking up occasional reposts but not much in the way of creative edits.

How It Spread

The first notable edit surfaced on November 4, 2017, when Instagram user worstigaccount posted a version where the male coworkers asked the woman whether she listened to Maroon 5 or Radiohead. On May 5, 2018, Redditor Bradley_Haran created a Star Wars-themed version that pulled in over 290 upvotes. The template also got submitted to ShitpostBot 5000 on June 3, 2018, opening it up to automated meme generation.

The real breakout came on January 20, 2019. Two posts hit Reddit on the same day: Redditor FrickDragon shared the unedited original to r/justneckbeardthings, where it earned over 520 upvotes, and Redditor Fifouxxe posted a bone hurting juice edit to r/bonehurtingjuice that exploded to over 26,300 upvotes. That single post kicked off a wave of remixes within the subreddit, with users competing to find the most unexpected or wholesome rewrites of the dialogue.

By August 2019, a specific subgenre had emerged: versions where the two men ask about the woman's music preferences. These edits gained traction in r/hiphopcirclejerk and other music meme communities, with the joke typically being that one man likes a mainstream artist while the other mentions something obscure or critically acclaimed. The format also spread to Russian-language internet communities, where it was used to highlight absurd workplace rules in Western corporate culture.

How to Use This Meme

The template is simple to customize. Take the original two-panel layout and replace the speech bubbles:

1

Top panel (attractive man): Write a statement, question, or opinion. The woman responds positively.

2

Bottom panel (unattractive man): Write the exact same statement. The woman calls HR.

Cultural Impact

The meme tapped into ongoing conversations about workplace behavior, attractiveness bias, and corporate HR culture. In its original form, it drew from the comedy trope that social rules get applied unevenly based on looks, a sentiment that found an audience in communities like r/justneckbeardthings and incel-adjacent spaces.

But the r/bonehurtingjuice community flipped this dynamic entirely. By stripping out the original social commentary and replacing it with absurdist rewrites, they turned a somewhat bitter comic into a playground for creative humor. This transformation is a textbook example of how meme communities can take a format's original message and redirect it completely.

The format also found a home in music meme communities, where it became a way to joke about genre snobbery and guilty pleasures without the original comic's gender politics.

Fun Facts

The original comic ran as part of Sunny Street Comics, a syndicated comic strip, not as a standalone meme. Max Garcia likely never anticipated it becoming an exploitable template.

The r/bonehurtingjuice subreddit, which gave the meme its biggest boost, is specifically dedicated to misinterpreting meme templates as literally as possible.

The meme sat relatively dormant for over five years (2013-2019) before its viral moment, making it a late bloomer in meme terms.

Russian meme communities adopted the format to parody perceived absurdities in Western corporate HR policies.

Derivatives & Variations

Bone hurting juice edits:

Literal reinterpretations where the dialogue makes no logical sense, stripping the comic of its original meaning. The January 2019 edit by Fifouxxe with 26,300 upvotes launched this entire subgenre[3].

Music preference variants:

Versions where the men ask about the woman's taste in artists, popular in r/hiphopcirclejerk starting August 2019[3].

Star Wars edits:

Fandom-specific versions, including Bradley_Haran's May 2018 Reddit post with 290+ upvotes[3].

ShitpostBot 5000 generations:

Randomized versions created after the template was submitted to the bot in June 2018[3].

Frequently Asked Questions