Me Gusta

2010Rage comic face / reaction imageclassic

Also known as: Me Gusta Face

Me Gusta is a 2010 Rage Comic face featuring bulging bloodshot eyes and an unsettling grin, created by artist May Oswald to humorously express guilty pleasure in socially awkward or gross situations.

Me Gusta is a Rage Comic face with bulging, bloodshot eyes and a wide, unsettling grin, used to express guilty pleasure about something awkward, gross, or socially unacceptable. The Spanish phrase, meaning "I like it," became internet shorthand for enjoying things you probably shouldn't2. Artist May Oswald created the face in March 2010 and deliberately seeded it across 4chan, making it one of the defining characters of the Rage Comics era.

rage comicsreaction memesearly 2010s memesguilty pleasure memes4chan memes

Overview

Me Gusta is a crudely drawn face featuring swollen, bloodshot eyes and a grin that sits somewhere between pleasure and horror. It typically appears as the final panel in a Rage Comic, dropped in to convey a disturbing sense of enjoyment about something most people would find gross, weird, or inappropriate. Urban Dictionary defines it as "a rage comic face used in response to something that is painful or awkward to experience but somehow simultaneously soothing or pleasant"2. The humor comes from the contrast: the setup presents something uncomfortable, and the Me Gusta face reveals the character secretly loves it.

Originally tied to sexually perverse or bodily scenarios, the meme's usage loosened over time. By its peak, it covered everything from peeling dried glue off your fingers to the cold side of the pillow to the satisfaction of popping bubble wrap. The face itself is the joke: that unmistakable expression of someone caught red-handed enjoying something they know they shouldn't.

Illustrator May Oswald (who went by Matt at the time) created the Me Gusta face and uploaded it to 4chan and Reddit on March 18, 2010, also posting it to her personal Tumblr blog and DeviantART account3. But Oswald didn't just drop the image and hope for the best. In a 2021 Know Your Meme interview, she revealed the whole thing was a calculated operation: she posted example comics using the face from multiple accounts and different IP addresses to create the illusion of organic spread3.

The first Me Gusta comic to appear after the initial upload featured a four-panel strip about a cat reacting to being pet. Oswald later admitted she made that comic herself as part of the seeding campaign. It worked. Within months, people who had no idea the meme was engineered were creating their own Me Gusta comics organically.

Oswald publicly identified herself as the face's creator on March 8, 2011, through a Reddit thread and an Ask Me Anything session.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan (first post), Reddit (simultaneous post)
Key People
May Oswald
Date
2010

Illustrator May Oswald (who went by Matt at the time) created the Me Gusta face and uploaded it to 4chan and Reddit on March 18, 2010, also posting it to her personal Tumblr blog and DeviantART account. But Oswald didn't just drop the image and hope for the best. In a 2021 Know Your Meme interview, she revealed the whole thing was a calculated operation: she posted example comics using the face from multiple accounts and different IP addresses to create the illusion of organic spread.

The first Me Gusta comic to appear after the initial upload featured a four-panel strip about a cat reacting to being pet. Oswald later admitted she made that comic herself as part of the seeding campaign. It worked. Within months, people who had no idea the meme was engineered were creating their own Me Gusta comics organically.

Oswald publicly identified herself as the face's creator on March 8, 2011, through a Reddit thread and an Ask Me Anything session.

How It Spread

A dedicated single-topic blog called "Me Gusta Face" launched in December 2010 to collect and curate comics featuring the character, and by May 2012 the meme ranked in the top tier on Memegenerator. Thousands of Me Gusta rage comics populated Memebase, Tumblr, and Reddit's popular F7U12 (r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu) subreddit. The face became a core member of the Rage Comics cast alongside Trollface, Forever Alone, the FUUUUU face, and Challenge Accepted.

Tumblr users in particular adopted "me gusta" as a quick-fire reaction phrase, especially in fandom spaces, to signal appreciation for something appealing. The expression worked because it was punchy, bilingual, and carried the right amount of self-aware cringe.

Me Gusta's peak popularity lined up with the broader Rage Comics golden age of roughly 2010 to 2013. As internet humor shifted toward image macros, deep-fried memes, and eventually TikTok-era formats, Rage Comics as a whole fell out of mainstream rotation. Me Gusta went with them, though the face and phrase remain instantly recognizable to anyone who was online during that period.

Platforms

4chanReddit9GAGTumblrFacebook

Timeline

2010

Me Gusta appears as part of rage comics

2010-2011

Becomes one of the most iconic rage comic characters

2011-01-01

Me Gusta started spreading across social media platforms

2012

Continues popularity as rage comics peak

2013+

Declines with rage comics as meme formats evolve

2015-01-01

Me Gusta entered the broader pop culture conversation

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The classic Me Gusta format works within a multi-panel Rage Comic:

1

Set up a mundane or slightly awkward situation in the first panels (eating cereal, sitting on the bus, taking a shower).

2

Introduce the specific uncomfortable-but-enjoyable detail (the weird satisfaction of picking a scab, the sound of crunching ice, accidentally touching someone's hand).

3

Drop the Me Gusta face in the final panel, typically with the caption "Me Gusta" or just the face alone.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Me Gusta was among the most recognizable faces to emerge from the Rage Comics movement, a format that dominated internet humor from roughly 2009 to 2013. The meme pushed a Spanish phrase into the English-speaking internet's daily vocabulary, with "me gusta" becoming a widely understood shorthand for guilty pleasure even among people who didn't speak Spanish.

The meme's origin story is also notable as an early documented case of deliberate viral engineering. Years before "growth hacking" entered the mainstream lexicon, Oswald was seeding her creation across 4chan with sock puppet accounts and faked organic engagement. The strategy worked so well that the meme's manufactured origins stayed hidden for over a decade until the 2021 interview.

The phrase "me gusta" also appeared as a song title from multiple international artists throughout the late 2010s, including tracks by Shakira, Anitta featuring Cardi B, and Inna, though none of these were directly connected to the meme.

Fun Facts

Oswald engineered the meme's virality by posting from multiple 4chan accounts with different IP addresses, making it look like several unrelated users had picked up the face organically.

The first "community" Me Gusta comic (the cat being pet) was actually made by Oswald herself as part of her seeding campaign.

Oswald went by "Matt" when she created the meme, and later came out publicly as May Oswald.

At least seven different songs by international artists share the title "Me Gusta," none related to the meme.

One Urban Dictionary entry incorrectly defines "me gusta" as Spanish for "I don't like this," the exact opposite of its actual meaning.

Derivatives & Variations

Creepy comic faces

A variation of Me Gusta

(2010)

Other rage comic characters

A variation of Me Gusta

(2010)

Disturbing expression memes

A variation of Me Gusta

(2010)

Frequently Asked Questions

Me Gusta

2010Rage comic face / reaction imageclassic

Also known as: Me Gusta Face

Me Gusta is a 2010 Rage Comic face featuring bulging bloodshot eyes and an unsettling grin, created by artist May Oswald to humorously express guilty pleasure in socially awkward or gross situations.

Me Gusta is a Rage Comic face with bulging, bloodshot eyes and a wide, unsettling grin, used to express guilty pleasure about something awkward, gross, or socially unacceptable. The Spanish phrase, meaning "I like it," became internet shorthand for enjoying things you probably shouldn't. Artist May Oswald created the face in March 2010 and deliberately seeded it across 4chan, making it one of the defining characters of the Rage Comics era.

rage comics reaction memes early 2010s memes guilty pleasure memes 4chan memes

Overview

Me Gusta is a crudely drawn face featuring swollen, bloodshot eyes and a grin that sits somewhere between pleasure and horror. It typically appears as the final panel in a Rage Comic, dropped in to convey a disturbing sense of enjoyment about something most people would find gross, weird, or inappropriate. Urban Dictionary defines it as "a rage comic face used in response to something that is painful or awkward to experience but somehow simultaneously soothing or pleasant". The humor comes from the contrast: the setup presents something uncomfortable, and the Me Gusta face reveals the character secretly loves it.

Originally tied to sexually perverse or bodily scenarios, the meme's usage loosened over time. By its peak, it covered everything from peeling dried glue off your fingers to the cold side of the pillow to the satisfaction of popping bubble wrap. The face itself is the joke: that unmistakable expression of someone caught red-handed enjoying something they know they shouldn't.

Illustrator May Oswald (who went by Matt at the time) created the Me Gusta face and uploaded it to 4chan and Reddit on March 18, 2010, also posting it to her personal Tumblr blog and DeviantART account. But Oswald didn't just drop the image and hope for the best. In a 2021 Know Your Meme interview, she revealed the whole thing was a calculated operation: she posted example comics using the face from multiple accounts and different IP addresses to create the illusion of organic spread.

The first Me Gusta comic to appear after the initial upload featured a four-panel strip about a cat reacting to being pet. Oswald later admitted she made that comic herself as part of the seeding campaign. It worked. Within months, people who had no idea the meme was engineered were creating their own Me Gusta comics organically.

Oswald publicly identified herself as the face's creator on March 8, 2011, through a Reddit thread and an Ask Me Anything session.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan (first post), Reddit (simultaneous post)
Key People
May Oswald
Date
2010

Illustrator May Oswald (who went by Matt at the time) created the Me Gusta face and uploaded it to 4chan and Reddit on March 18, 2010, also posting it to her personal Tumblr blog and DeviantART account. But Oswald didn't just drop the image and hope for the best. In a 2021 Know Your Meme interview, she revealed the whole thing was a calculated operation: she posted example comics using the face from multiple accounts and different IP addresses to create the illusion of organic spread.

The first Me Gusta comic to appear after the initial upload featured a four-panel strip about a cat reacting to being pet. Oswald later admitted she made that comic herself as part of the seeding campaign. It worked. Within months, people who had no idea the meme was engineered were creating their own Me Gusta comics organically.

Oswald publicly identified herself as the face's creator on March 8, 2011, through a Reddit thread and an Ask Me Anything session.

How It Spread

A dedicated single-topic blog called "Me Gusta Face" launched in December 2010 to collect and curate comics featuring the character, and by May 2012 the meme ranked in the top tier on Memegenerator. Thousands of Me Gusta rage comics populated Memebase, Tumblr, and Reddit's popular F7U12 (r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu) subreddit. The face became a core member of the Rage Comics cast alongside Trollface, Forever Alone, the FUUUUU face, and Challenge Accepted.

Tumblr users in particular adopted "me gusta" as a quick-fire reaction phrase, especially in fandom spaces, to signal appreciation for something appealing. The expression worked because it was punchy, bilingual, and carried the right amount of self-aware cringe.

Me Gusta's peak popularity lined up with the broader Rage Comics golden age of roughly 2010 to 2013. As internet humor shifted toward image macros, deep-fried memes, and eventually TikTok-era formats, Rage Comics as a whole fell out of mainstream rotation. Me Gusta went with them, though the face and phrase remain instantly recognizable to anyone who was online during that period.

Platforms

4chanReddit9GAGTumblrFacebook

Timeline

2010

Me Gusta appears as part of rage comics

2010-2011

Becomes one of the most iconic rage comic characters

2011-01-01

Me Gusta started spreading across social media platforms

2012

Continues popularity as rage comics peak

2013+

Declines with rage comics as meme formats evolve

2015-01-01

Me Gusta entered the broader pop culture conversation

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The classic Me Gusta format works within a multi-panel Rage Comic:

1

Set up a mundane or slightly awkward situation in the first panels (eating cereal, sitting on the bus, taking a shower).

2

Introduce the specific uncomfortable-but-enjoyable detail (the weird satisfaction of picking a scab, the sound of crunching ice, accidentally touching someone's hand).

3

Drop the Me Gusta face in the final panel, typically with the caption "Me Gusta" or just the face alone.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Me Gusta was among the most recognizable faces to emerge from the Rage Comics movement, a format that dominated internet humor from roughly 2009 to 2013. The meme pushed a Spanish phrase into the English-speaking internet's daily vocabulary, with "me gusta" becoming a widely understood shorthand for guilty pleasure even among people who didn't speak Spanish.

The meme's origin story is also notable as an early documented case of deliberate viral engineering. Years before "growth hacking" entered the mainstream lexicon, Oswald was seeding her creation across 4chan with sock puppet accounts and faked organic engagement. The strategy worked so well that the meme's manufactured origins stayed hidden for over a decade until the 2021 interview.

The phrase "me gusta" also appeared as a song title from multiple international artists throughout the late 2010s, including tracks by Shakira, Anitta featuring Cardi B, and Inna, though none of these were directly connected to the meme.

Fun Facts

Oswald engineered the meme's virality by posting from multiple 4chan accounts with different IP addresses, making it look like several unrelated users had picked up the face organically.

The first "community" Me Gusta comic (the cat being pet) was actually made by Oswald herself as part of her seeding campaign.

Oswald went by "Matt" when she created the meme, and later came out publicly as May Oswald.

At least seven different songs by international artists share the title "Me Gusta," none related to the meme.

One Urban Dictionary entry incorrectly defines "me gusta" as Spanish for "I don't like this," the exact opposite of its actual meaning.

Derivatives & Variations

Creepy comic faces

A variation of Me Gusta

(2010)

Other rage comic characters

A variation of Me Gusta

(2010)

Disturbing expression memes

A variation of Me Gusta

(2010)

Frequently Asked Questions