Russian Butt Slapping Championship — Two women contestants on stage at the Russian butt-slapping championship, one preparing to slap the other as a referee

Russian Butt Slapping Championship

2019image macroclassic

Published October 19, 2026

Russian Butt Slapping Championship, also known as Russian Spanking Contest, is an object-labeling image macro taken from a May 2019 Generation Iron Russia slapping event in which a green-haired woman winds up to spank blonde Instagram model Anastasia Zolotaya1. By early 2020, Reddit and Twitter accounts were labeling the two women and the referee between them to joke about anything hitting, liking or targeting something else5.

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Overview

The template is a single still frame from a Generation Iron Russia slap contest, cropped to show three figures: a green-haired competitor cocking her hand back, a male referee in the middle, and blonde contestant Anastasia Zolotaya bent over waiting for the hit1. Posters label each figure, so the green-haired woman becomes the thing doing the slapping, Zolotaya becomes the thing getting hit, and the referee is sometimes labeled as a bystander or enabler4.

The joke works best when the three labels set up a short chain of blame or desire, which is why early examples ran it as a relationship or self-deprecation gag. Variants also plug the still into other formats, including a Will You Press the Button? crossover posted on Instagram by illegal._.memes in December 20193. Tone is almost always juvenile and relatable rather than political, with office life, dating, and school common targets5.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (source clip) / 9GAG (early meme spread)
Date
2019

The source clip was uploaded to YouTube by Generation Iron Russia on May 25, 2019, as part of a mixed-gender slap championship video that cycles through several bouts1. Around the 4:25 mark, a green-haired contestant squares off against Instagram model Anastasia Zolotaya, who went on to win the match2. By April 2020, that upload had passed 2.6 million views, 30,000 likes and roughly 2,700 comments2.

The meme itself emerged a few weeks later when a cropped screenshot of the wind-up moment began circulating as an object-labeling template. The earliest documented example is a 9GAG post from June 13, 2019, captioned about a dog eating something, which collected close to 1,700 points and 35 comments6. The underlying video creator is Generation Iron Russia; the fan who first turned the still into a meme is unconfirmed.

How It Spread

After the June 2019 9GAG post, the format moved onto Instagram meme accounts. On December 11, 2019, illegal._.memes paired the still with the Will You Press the Button? layout, earning 72 likes on a smaller account3. Ten days later, on December 21, 2019, Infiniti shitposting account g35_shitmemes posted a straight object-labeling version that collected 329 likes4.

Reddit picked up the template in early 2020. User 24hawkman posted an edit to r/me_irl on March 19, 2020, which climbed to nearly 20,000 upvotes and over 100 comments and became the format's biggest documented hit5. The next day, Twitter account MGAG tweeted its own labeled version on March 20, 2020, logging 178 likes and 70 retweets7.

Know Your Meme catalogued the format shortly after, grouping the 9GAG, Instagram, Reddit and Twitter examples together under the Russian Butt Slapping Championship entry and noting the alternate name Russian Spanking Contest2. New uploads tapered off through 2020, but the still is still reused occasionally as a reaction image when posters want a three-way object label with a clear hitter and target.

Timeline

2019-05-25

Generation Iron Russia uploads the Slap Championship video to YouTube, including the Anastasia Zolotaya bout the meme comes from.

2019-06-13

A 9GAG user posts the earliest documented object-labeled version of the cropped still, drawing about 1,700 points.

2019-12-11

Instagram account illegal._.memes posts a Will You Press the Button? crossover using the format.

2019-12-21

Instagram account g35_shitmemes posts a straight object-labeling example that gets 329 likes.

2020-03-19

Redditor 24hawkman posts a version to r/me_irl that reaches nearly 20,000 upvotes.

2020-03-20

MGAG tweets its own labeled edit, pulling 178 likes and 70 retweets.

Frequently Asked Questions