# Me Gusta > 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[2]. 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. ## Origin 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[3]. 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[3]. 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. - **Platform:** 4chan (first post), Reddit (simultaneous post) - **Creator:** May Oswald (artist, formerly known as Matt) - **Date:** 2010 ## 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. ## 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[3]. Thousands of Me Gusta rage comics populated Memebase, Tumblr, and Reddit's popular F7U12 (r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu) subreddit[1]. 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[2]. 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. ## How to Use 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. ## 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[2]. 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[4]. ## 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[4]. - One Urban Dictionary entry incorrectly defines "me gusta" as Spanish for "I don't like this," the exact opposite of its actual meaning[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Me Gusta? Me Gusta is a Rage Comic face depicting bulging eyes and an unsettling grin, used to express guilty pleasure about awkward or gross situations. The phrase means "I like it" in Spanish[2]. ### Where did Me Gusta come from? Artist May Oswald created the face and posted it to 4chan and Reddit on March 18, 2010, deliberately seeding it with multiple accounts to make it go viral[3]. ### What does Me Gusta mean? Literally "I like it" in Spanish, but in meme context it signals enjoying something weird, uncomfortable, or socially unacceptable. It conveys being both disturbed and pleased at the same time[2]. ### How do you use Me Gusta? Place the Me Gusta face as the final panel of a Rage Comic after setting up a secretly enjoyable awkward situation, or use it as a standalone reaction image[1]. ### Is Me Gusta still popular? Me Gusta's peak was during the Rage Comics golden age of 2010-2013. The format largely faded from mainstream use, though the face is widely recognized as a classic internet meme[1]. ### Who created the Me Gusta face? May Oswald, an illustrator who went by Matt at the time, drew and posted the original face in March 2010[1]. ### Did the creator intentionally make it go viral? Yes. Oswald posted example comics from multiple 4chan accounts using different IP addresses to simulate organic community adoption. ### What subreddit featured Me Gusta most prominently? Reddit's r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu (F7U12), the main Rage Comics subreddit, hosted thousands of Me Gusta comics during the meme's peak[1]. ### Is Me Gusta related to any songs called "Me Gusta"? Several international artists have released songs titled "Me Gusta," including Shakira, Anitta featuring Cardi B, and Inna, but these are unrelated to the meme[4]. ### When did Oswald reveal herself as the creator? Oswald first publicly claimed credit on Reddit on March 8, 2011, through a thread and an AMA session. ## References 1. [Memebase - me gusta - All Your Memes In Our Base - Funny Memes - Cheezburger]() 2. [Me Gusta - Know Your Meme]() 3. [Me Gusta]() 4. [Me Gusta - Urban Dictionary]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/me-gusta Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library