# Red Circle Perpetrators Red Circle Perpetrators is a photo edit format where a circled cutout of a character is pasted into an unrelated picture, mimicking clickbait "zoom-in" arrows to frame them as the culprit at the scene. The template started in late 2021 with the Trojan Horse Chuu K-pop edits and hit peak reach during the summer 2022 Taylor Swift private jet story. ## Overview Red Circle Perpetrators is a photo edit format in which a small circled cutout of a character is pasted into an unrelated image, mimicking the red-arrow "zoom-in" style used in clickbait thumbnails to point out a supposed culprit at a scene[1]. The joke works by inserting someone who was obviously not present, a K-pop idol, a cartoon character, or a celebrity, into a real news photo or viral image and framing them as the secret perpetrator[3]. The format is instantly recognisable because it copies the crude visual grammar of low-effort tabloid graphics: a red ring, an arrow, and a tightly cropped face floating over a chaotic scene[3]. It took off in late 2021 through the "Trojan Horse Chuu" edits on Twitter and hit its biggest run of variants in summer 2022[2]. ## How It Spread By late November 2021, more Trojan Horse Chuu variants filled K-pop Twitter, including a @vaisefudechuu edit that grafted Chuu onto the original Chuck Norris highway photo[3]. The format broke out of the LOONA fandom on June 1, 2022, when Twitter user @ratiothesenuts edited a dog in round glasses into the same highway image. That post reached about 12,100 likes before being deleted[3]. Tumblr picked it up almost immediately. On June 2, 2022, user joshlovesyou reposted the dog edit and pulled over 6,800 likes and reblogs in two months, and on June 4 user pinkmoondoll9shihtzu swapped in Chainsaw Man's Power for another 1,200 notes[3]. The template broke free of the highway photo on June 15, 2022, when @catfactory circled a figure into a low-resolution White House shot, and an Animals with Captions reformat on July 17 pulled roughly 20,000 likes[3]. Peak reach came on July 30, 2022, during the Taylor Swift private jet emissions story, when Twitter user @emopunkloser edited Swift into the cockpit of the plane hitting the World Trade Center. The post pulled about 64,100 likes in four days and set off a wave of Swift-as-perpetrator variants[2]. ## How to Use The template typically starts with a real photograph of a chaotic or newsworthy scene: a car crash, a highway shot, a landmark, a historic disaster. Creators then paste a small circled headshot of a character somewhere in the frame, usually with a crude red arrow pointing at a specific spot, so the character reads as the hidden perpetrator[3]. Common conventions include keeping the circle low-effort and pixelated to match the clickbait look, and picking a face that is absurd in context (a K-pop idol, a fictional character, or a celebrity known for unrelated drama)[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Red Circle Perpetrators? It is a photo edit format that pastes a circled cutout of a character into a real news or viral photo, mimicking clickbait zoom-in arrows to frame them as the culprit at the scene[3]. ### Where did Red Circle Perpetrators come from? The format started on September 26, 2020, with Twitter user @hwmhm's first "Trojan Horse Chuu" edit, and became a repeatable template after @loonapostagem's November 16, 2021 post[1]. ### What does Red Circle Perpetrators mean? The joke is treating an obviously unrelated character as if they were secretly present at the scene, using the crude red-circle style of tabloid clickbait graphics to sell the fake accusation[3]. ### How do you use Red Circle Perpetrators? People take a chaotic photo, paste a small circled headshot of a character into the frame with a red arrow, and caption or contextualise them as the hidden perpetrator, often picking an absurd or off-topic face for the punchline[3]. ### Is Red Circle Perpetrators still popular? The format's biggest run was summer 2022, capped by @emopunkloser's Taylor Swift jet edit on July 30, 2022, which pulled about 64,100 likes in four days and cemented it as a classic photo edit template[2]. ## References 1. [https://twitter.com/loonapostagem]() 2. [https://twitter.com/emopunkloser]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/red-circle-perpetrators]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trojan-horse-chuu]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/taylor-swifts-private-jet-controversy]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/red-circle-perpetrators Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library