Thai Political Crisis Breakup — Two-panel comic of a man in pink hoodie escorting a woman out of an apartment and later walking away from her on a bed.

Thai Political Crisis Breakup

2017exploitable webcomicclassic

Published September 30, 2026

Thai Political Crisis Breakup is a four-panel webcomic from November 2017 in which a man abandons a hookup after spotting a photo of Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban on his date's dresser. Originally a pointed political cartoon about the 2013 to 2014 Thai crisis, it became an exploitable template where the offending picture gets swapped for anything a poster wants to reject.

exploitable templates webcomic memes political satire memes multi panel memes dismissal memes

Overview

Thai Political Crisis Breakup is a four-panel exploitable webcomic built around a simple gag: a man is about to sleep with a woman, spots a framed picture on her dresser, silently gets dressed and walks out. In the final panel, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra watches him leave from a window across the street1. The joke in the original strip lands on the Thai political rift, since the woman keeps a photo of Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, Thaksin's political opponent during the 2013 to 2014 Thai political crisis3.

Once the strip spread outside Thailand, the third panel became the punchline slot. Editors swap the Suthep photo for whatever the poster wants to reject, from video games to anime to telecom regulators2. The rest of the panels stay untouched, which keeps the deadpan pacing intact and makes the gag depend entirely on what viewers see on the dresser.

Origin & Background

Platform
Facebook (origin) / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
cartoonfartcat
Date
2017

On November 3rd, 2017, Facebook user cartoonfartcat posted the original four-panel comic showing a man leaving a woman after noticing a picture of Suthep Thaugsuban1. The final panel of Thaksin Shinawatra watching from a nearby window frames the strip as a political joke about the 2013 to 2014 Thai political crisis, in which the two figures sat on opposing sides of the country's yellow shirt and red shirt divide3. Within about a month, the post pulled in more than 1,700 shares, 400 comments and 10,000 reactions1.

English-speaking users initially had no idea what the strip was about. A Reddit thread in r/MemeEconomy on December 5th, 2017 explained the Thai political context and flagged the comic's exploitable potential2, which is what pushed it out of its original audience and into meme circulation.

How It Spread

The first widely shared edit came from Spanish-language site Planeta Neperiano on December 4th, 2017, which swapped the Suthep photo for explicit anime imagery and a sex toy as a Boku no Pico reference4. The edit was cross-posted to Planeta Neperiano's Facebook page, where it picked up more than 390 views and 20 reactions inside three days4.

Reddit is where the format actually took off. On December 6th, 2017, Redditor DrizXzX posted an edit in r/MemeEconomy that placed a copy of Star Wars: Battlefront II on the dresser, playing off the game's loot box backlash. The post pulled in more than 41,000 points at 94 percent upvoted and around 700 comments in its first 24 hours5. Around the same time, r/dankmemes ran with the template, including a version by Redditor Trending Memes that swapped in FCC Chairman Ajit Pai during the peak of the net neutrality repeal fight, which reached more than 4,000 points and 40 comments in a day5.

The comic settled into use as a rejection template, where the third panel names whatever the poster considers a dealbreaker2. Because the original was already a political cartoon, the format sat comfortably on top of other political and consumer grievances circulating in late 2017.

Timeline

2017-11-03

Facebook user cartoonfartcat posts the original four-panel comic about the Thai political crisis[1].

2017-12-04

Planeta Neperiano publishes a photoshopped version referencing Boku no Pico, the first widely circulated edit[4].

2017-12-05

A r/MemeEconomy commenter breaks down the Thai political context for English-speaking users and flags the comic as an exploitable[2].

2017-12-06

Redditor DrizXzX posts the Star Wars: Battlefront II edit in r/MemeEconomy, which passes 41,000 points inside 24 hours[5].

2017-12-06

R/dankmemes picks up the format, including an Ajit Pai net neutrality edit by Trending Memes[5].

Frequently Asked Questions