A Rage Comics face showing a character barely holding back laughter, with the escaping snicker sound written out phonetically as "PFFFTTTCHH".

Where did PFFFTTTCHH come from?

It first appeared in a Rage Comic posted to /r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu by redditor u/HalfDemon1122 on November 29, 2009, in a comic about trolling Omegle users as the FBI.

What does PFFFTTTCHH mean?

The letters approximate the sound of a stifled laugh escaping through pinched lips, used when a character in a Rage Comic can't quite hold in a giggle.

How do you use PFFFTTTCHH?

Drop the face into a Rage Comic panel as the reaction to an absurd punchline or a prank paying off, letting the phonetic snicker deliver the joke.

Is PFFFTTTCHH still popular?

Rage Comics fell out of active use by the mid-2010s and PFFFTTTCHH faded with the format, though it still surfaces in nostalgic Rage Face compilations.

PFFFTTTCHH

2009reaction imageclassic

Published September 21, 2026

PFFFTTTCHH is a Rage Comics face depicting a character barely holding back laughter, with the accompanying text spelling out the involuntary snickering sound. It first appeared in a November 2009 Reddit comic and became a staple reaction panel of the Rage Comic format as that style exploded across the internet in the early 2010s.

rage comics reaction memes facial expression memes subreddit origin memes early 2010s memes

Overview

PFFFTTTCHH shows a wide-mouthed character with squinted eyes letting out an involuntary snicker that fizzles into text spelling the sound "PFFFTTTCHH" 1. Within the Rage Comic vocabulary, the face got dropped into panels where a character has just witnessed a prank pay off or heard something too absurd to keep a straight face about 2.

The visual was likely traced or adapted from a yellow "Plz" emote circulating on DeviantArt at the time, an emote sharing the same squinted, laugh-cracking expression 2. The Rage Comic version actually predates the earliest confirmed live upload of that emote by about ten days, so the exact drawing lineage is muddy, and it is unclear whether the first poster drew the face themselves or borrowed it 2.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Date

2009

On November 29, 2009, a now-deleted Reddit user named u/HalfDemon1122 posted a Rage Comic to /r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu about trolling Omegle users by pretending to be the FBI 2. In the second panel, a character struggles to hold back laughter, with the escaping sound written out as "PFFFTTTCHH," the earliest known appearance of the face in a Rage Comic 2. Over its life the post pulled in more than 300 upvotes, and commenters singled out the new face as a strong addition to the growing Rage Face set 2.

On December 9, 2009, DeviantArt user Plz-database uploaded the yellow "Plz" emote that shares PFFFTTTCHH's expression, giving it the earliest known live version of the underlying face, though still ten days behind the first Rage Comic use 2.

How It Spread

The face caught on inside /r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu within weeks of its first appearance. On December 26, 2009, redditor u/Poromenos started a thread on the subreddit asking users to link their favorite Rage Faces so they could all be collected in one place, and the PFFFTTTCHH face was posted in the comments, pulling in over 150 upvotes 2. That thread functioned as an early canonization moment for the growing face library.

Through the early 2010s, the face saw considerable use in Rage Comics, appearing in numerous variations and becoming a staple of the format 2. It settled into a specific job in the panel grammar: the reaction for a character trying and failing to keep a straight face, whether watching someone else get pranked, reading a dumb comment, or hearing an absurd punchline.

Rage Comics themselves fell out of active use by the mid-2010s as the format was pushed aside by image macros, screencaps, and later short-video memes 1. PFFFTTTCHH faded with the broader style, though it still shows up in nostalgic Rage Face compilations and lookbacks at early Reddit meme culture 2.

Timeline

2009-11-29

U/HalfDemon1122 posts the Omegle FBI Rage Comic to /r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu, the earliest known appearance of the PFFFTTTCHH face.

2009-12-09

DeviantArt user Plz-database uploads the yellow "Plz" emote that shares the PFFFTTTCHH expression.

2009-12-26

U/Poromenos starts a favorite-Rage-Faces thread on /r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu; the PFFFTTTCHH face is posted in the comments and pulls over 150 upvotes.

2010

PFFFTTTCHH settles into standard use as a barely-holding-it-in laugh reaction in Rage Comics across Reddit.

2015

Rage Comics fade from active use as newer meme formats take over, and PFFFTTTCHH goes largely dormant with them.

How to Use This Meme

PFFFTTTCHH typically drops into a Rage Comic panel as the reaction to something the character finds ridiculous but shouldn't laugh at. The common convention is to place it after a punchline panel, letting the escaping snicker sound do the delivery instead of dialogue.