# New Guy New Guy is a character from a December 2019 webcomic by artist Mallorie Jessica Udischas (sweetbeans99) who tries to temper his coworker's laughter at PewDiePie getting robbed[3]. After the comic went viral on Twitter in early 2020, fans reframed the mild-mannered coworker as a wholesome hero and flooded the platform with sympathetic fan art[4]. ## Overview New Guy is the nickname fans gave to a mild-mannered coworker character in a four-panel webcomic drawn by artist Mallorie Jessica Udischas, who posts as sweetbeans99[3]. In the strip, a purple-haired protagonist laughs about a wealthy gamer getting robbed, and the coworker, whose name tag literally reads 'NEW GUY,' interjects with 'Hey, how'd you like it if you were robbed?'[3] Rather than side with the protagonist, Twitter fixated on the polite bystander. The character was quickly recast as a wholesome underdog, and edits kept the coworker's earnest dialogue while rewriting the protagonist's punchlines[4]. The wave of sympathetic fan art also sparked a parallel argument about whether the affection for New Guy was disguised harassment aimed at the original artist[1]. ## How It Spread The comic jumped to Twitter in late December 2019, but the breakout moment came on January 1, 2020, when animator OneyNG posted it with the caption 'I wanted to start my year good but this was the first thing I saw today,' pulling in more than 2,000 retweets and 24,000 likes[2]. Replies filled with redraws, and @PaladinDraws' version, in which the protagonist actually takes New Guy's advice, gained over 950 retweets and 8,700 likes[5]. @Oh_Turbo_Nerd added a Loss edit that cleared 290 retweets[6]. Fan art quickly overtook the joke edits. @Lynthoraxs drew New Guy asking people not to attack sweetbeans99, and @sauceelf shared art by @kryanari campaigning to make him the first wholesome meme of 2020, which crossed 150 retweets and 790 likes[3]. Cheezburger picked up the trend the same week[3]. The backlash arrived just as fast. On January 1, 2020, the artist tweeted that her mentions were overrun by users calling her ugly before locking the account[3]. Twitter user @aNerdskull argued the wholesome framing was cover for a Gamergate-style pile-on against LGBTQ+ critics of Oney and PewDiePie, and @casersatz called the New Guy edits 'a tad disingenuous' in a thread that topped 3,700 likes within a day[3]. ## How to Use New Guy edits typically keep the original panel layout and the coworker's earnest dialogue, then rewrite the purple-haired character's lines so the strip lands as either heartwarming or absurd. A common convention is to redraw the final panel so the protagonist accepts his kindness instead of rejecting it. The character alone also works as a wholesome reaction image. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is New Guy? New Guy is a coworker character from a December 2019 sweetbeans99 webcomic whose earnest line 'Hey, how'd you like it if you were robbed?' turned him into a wholesome meme[3]. ### Where did New Guy come from? Artist Mallorie Jessica Udischas (sweetbeans99) posted the four-panel comic to Tumblr on December 8, 2019, riffing on PewDiePie's December 2 home robbery[3]. ### What does New Guy mean? Fans read New Guy as an unexpectedly kind bystander whose empathy contrasted with the protagonist's mockery, which is why he was reframed as a wholesome hero in Twitter edits[2]. ### How do you use New Guy? People typically redraw the comic to keep New Guy's polite dialogue while rewriting the other character's lines, or use the coworker panel by itself as a wholesome reaction image[5]. ### Is New Guy still popular? The meme is remembered as an early-2020 Twitter moment; peak activity was in January 2020 with edits like OneyNG's post that hit 24,000 likes[2]. ## References 1. [https://www.insider.com/pewdiepie-marzia-kjellberg-robbed-thieves-broke-in-2019-12]() 2. [https://twitter.com/OneyNG]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/new-guy]() 4. [https://twitter.com/sweetbeans99]() 5. [https://twitter.com/PaladinDraws]() 6. [https://twitter.com/Oh_Turbo_Nerd]() 7. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=New%20Guy]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/new-guy Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library