# Wew Lad Wew Lad is a 4chan catchphrase that bubbled out of the /s4s/ board in late 2013, pairing a nonsense exclamation with a crudely drawn 'Wrinkle Face' man and a doctored Doge image. The phrase became a signature piece of /s4s/ shitposting culture and later jumped to Reddit and the World of Warcraft forums as a go-to expression of mock surprise. ## Origin The earliest known use of 'wew lad' showed up in a thread on 4chan's /s4s/ (shit 4chan says) board on December 14th, 2013[1]. The timing lines up with an older curiosity that /s4s/ posters were aware of: exactly one year earlier, on December 14th, 2012, the Philippine security blog SecurityMatters published a report about a 13-year-old student who was reportedly murdered after replying to a Facebook post with the word 'wew'[3]. KYM links the two events as the backdrop for the catchphrase's emergence on /s4s/[4]. No single poster is credited with inventing the format. The 4plebs archive preserves the originating /s4s/ thread, but the board's anonymous culture means the actual author is unknown[1]. The 'Wrinkle Face' character that later attached itself to the phrase was documented separately on the /s4s/ wiki as an in-house doodle used across the board[5]. - **Platform:** 4chan /s4s/ (origin) / Reddit (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2013 ## Overview Wew Lad is a deliberately dumb exclamation used to fake surprise, confusion, or disbelief, almost always as a shitpost rather than a real reaction[1]. The phrase is usually posted alongside the 'Wrinkle Face' drawing, a scribbled toast-shaped man with a long frown that circulated as a signature /s4s/ character[5]. A second common visual is a digitally altered Shiba Inu lifted from the Doge template, which pairs the catchphrase with another meme already associated with lazy ironic humor[4]. The appeal is in the empty-headedness. 'Wew' on its own reads like a stunted 'whew,' and tacking on 'lad' turns it into a near-parody of British-style expressions of shock. Urban Dictionary contributors described it as a 'shitty forced meme' featuring the poorly drawn man or the Doge edit, which matches how /s4s/ framed it internally as an obvious joke pushed past the point of actually being funny[7]. That self-aware badness is the point, and it is what let the phrase stick as a reliable in-joke. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Wew Lad? Wew Lad is a 4chan /s4s/ catchphrase used as a joke expression of surprise, usually paired with the 'Wrinkle Face' drawing or an edited Doge image[1][5]. ### Where did Wew Lad come from? The earliest known use was in a /s4s/ thread on December 14th, 2013, with an older 2012 news story about a Facebook 'wew' comment cited as background by KYM[1][4]. ### What does Wew Lad mean? It is a deliberately empty expression of mock shock or disbelief, closer to a shitpost than a real reaction, as Urban Dictionary entries describe[7]. ### How do you use Wew Lad? People typically post it in reply to something surprising or absurd, often with the Wrinkle Face man or the altered Doge image to drive the joke home[2][5]. ### Is Wew Lad still popular? It is still used on 4chan and in older meme communities as a classic /s4s/ shitpost phrase, though its peak attention was in 2014 and 2015 after the single-serving site and Reddit crossposts[2][4]. ## References 1. [https://archive.4plebs.org/s4s/thread/1394646/#1394646]() 2. [https://blazeti.me/wewlad/]() 3. [https://securitymatters.com.ph/teenage-boy-killed-for-wew-facebook-comment-8225/]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wew-lad]() 5. [http://s4s.wikia.com/wiki/Wrinkle_Face]() 6. [https://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/16860656040]() 7. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wew%20Lad]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/wew-lad Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library