Kim Jong Il Looking At Things

2010single-topic blogclassic

Published September 4, 2026

Kim Jong Il Looking At Things is a photo blog project that collected official North Korean state propaganda images of the late dictator inspecting factories, farms, and consumer goods with a fixed, unreadable stare. Launched on Tumblr in October 2010 by a Portuguese art director, the deadpan repetition of the format turned regime propaganda into one of the defining single-topic blog memes of the early 2010s.

single serving site memestumblr memespolitical satire memesearly 2010s memesabsurdist humor memes

Overview

Kim Jong Il Looking At Things is a curated archive of official Korean Central News Agency photographs showing the late North Korean leader on inspection visits to factories, farms, mineral water plants, and other sites1. The images all follow the same rigid visual grammar: Kim in a khaki jumpsuit or dark parka, flanked by note-taking officials, staring intently at whatever object happens to be in front of him. The joke is entirely in the aggregation. When one photo becomes hundreds, the propaganda format collapses into absurdity.

The blog runs the pictures with almost no editorial voice, usually just a short caption naming the object being looked at. That deadpan presentation is what made the format travel. Outlets from NPR to The Washington Post picked it up as a window into North Korean state imagery, noting that the pictures were originally intended as pro-regime propaganda promoting the Juche ideology but read very differently once stripped of their context and stacked together12.

Origin & Background

Platform
Tumblr (viral spread on Reddit and news media)
Creator
João Rocha
Date
2010

The Tumblr blog Kim Jong Il Looking At Things was launched on October 6th, 2010 by Portuguese art director João Rocha2. Every photograph republished on the site was originally taken and distributed by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea's official news outlet, as part of the regime's long-running On-The-Spot Guidance tradition in which the leader visits work sites to offer instruction2.

Rocha did not shoot or alter any of the images. The creative act was purely one of selection and framing: pulling KCNA's own propaganda output into a single feed where the repetition of the pose became the point1.

How It Spread

The first Reddit thread about the blog appeared on October 28th, 2010 and picked up only a few dozen upvotes2. A second Reddit post on December 2nd, 2010 broke through, accumulating 2,393 upvotes before it was archived, and the images jumped to the Bodybuilding.com forums the following day2.

Mainstream press coverage followed quickly. NPR ran a piece on November 29th, 2010 framing the Tumblr as an accidental window into the 'Dear Leader,' noting that images meant as propaganda 'come across somewhat differently' in the hands of the internet1. Coverage on MSNBC and The Washington Post followed, and humor sites including The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Laughing Squid, and Funny or Die reposted galleries drawn from the blog2.

When Yonhap News reported on December 18th, 2011 that Kim Jong Il had died at age 69 during a train ride the day before, the format immediately spawned a sequel2. Within hours a companion Tumblr, Kim Jong Un Looking At Things, appeared with photos of his son and successor, cementing 'looking at things' as a durable template for documenting North Korean leadership imagery.

How to Use This Meme

The format is typically used by pairing a KCNA-style inspection photograph with a minimal caption naming the object being looked at, letting the rigid pose and entourage of note-takers do the comedic work. Later imitators applied the same treatment to other world leaders and public figures, with 'Kim Jong Un Looking At Things' being the direct follow-up2.

Frequently Asked Questions

Kim Jong Il Looking At Things

2010single-topic blogclassic

Published September 4, 2026

Kim Jong Il Looking At Things is a photo blog project that collected official North Korean state propaganda images of the late dictator inspecting factories, farms, and consumer goods with a fixed, unreadable stare. Launched on Tumblr in October 2010 by a Portuguese art director, the deadpan repetition of the format turned regime propaganda into one of the defining single-topic blog memes of the early 2010s.

single serving site memes tumblr memes political satire memes early 2010s memes absurdist humor memes

Overview

Kim Jong Il Looking At Things is a curated archive of official Korean Central News Agency photographs showing the late North Korean leader on inspection visits to factories, farms, mineral water plants, and other sites1. The images all follow the same rigid visual grammar: Kim in a khaki jumpsuit or dark parka, flanked by note-taking officials, staring intently at whatever object happens to be in front of him. The joke is entirely in the aggregation. When one photo becomes hundreds, the propaganda format collapses into absurdity.

The blog runs the pictures with almost no editorial voice, usually just a short caption naming the object being looked at. That deadpan presentation is what made the format travel. Outlets from NPR to The Washington Post picked it up as a window into North Korean state imagery, noting that the pictures were originally intended as pro-regime propaganda promoting the Juche ideology but read very differently once stripped of their context and stacked together12.

Origin & Background

Platform
Tumblr (viral spread on Reddit and news media)
Creator
João Rocha
Date
2010

The Tumblr blog Kim Jong Il Looking At Things was launched on October 6th, 2010 by Portuguese art director João Rocha2. Every photograph republished on the site was originally taken and distributed by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea's official news outlet, as part of the regime's long-running On-The-Spot Guidance tradition in which the leader visits work sites to offer instruction2.

Rocha did not shoot or alter any of the images. The creative act was purely one of selection and framing: pulling KCNA's own propaganda output into a single feed where the repetition of the pose became the point1.

How It Spread

The first Reddit thread about the blog appeared on October 28th, 2010 and picked up only a few dozen upvotes2. A second Reddit post on December 2nd, 2010 broke through, accumulating 2,393 upvotes before it was archived, and the images jumped to the Bodybuilding.com forums the following day2.

Mainstream press coverage followed quickly. NPR ran a piece on November 29th, 2010 framing the Tumblr as an accidental window into the 'Dear Leader,' noting that images meant as propaganda 'come across somewhat differently' in the hands of the internet1. Coverage on MSNBC and The Washington Post followed, and humor sites including The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Laughing Squid, and Funny or Die reposted galleries drawn from the blog2.

When Yonhap News reported on December 18th, 2011 that Kim Jong Il had died at age 69 during a train ride the day before, the format immediately spawned a sequel2. Within hours a companion Tumblr, Kim Jong Un Looking At Things, appeared with photos of his son and successor, cementing 'looking at things' as a durable template for documenting North Korean leadership imagery.

How to Use This Meme

The format is typically used by pairing a KCNA-style inspection photograph with a minimal caption naming the object being looked at, letting the rigid pose and entourage of note-takers do the comedic work. Later imitators applied the same treatment to other world leaders and public figures, with 'Kim Jong Un Looking At Things' being the direct follow-up2.

Frequently Asked Questions