What is Where Is Poor?

Where Is Poor is an exploitable image macro based on a Russian political cartoon in which an obese man asks "Where is poor?" through binoculars while his belly blocks a panhandler from view.

Where did Where Is Poor come from?

The underlying image is a Russian political drawing by an unknown artist, with the earliest documented redrawn copy posted to the imageboard Pikabu on August 31, 2012.

What does Where Is Poor mean?

The original cartoon mocks the wealthy pretending not to see poverty beneath their feet, with a cigar-smoking rich man unable to spot a starving child because of his own stomach.

Is Where Is Poor still popular?

Its biggest spike was a Russian VK revival in early March 2022 led by meme pages like Peplix, and the template is still used on English-language postironic subreddits.

Where Is Poor

Q: How do you use Where Is Poor?

Editors keep the fat man and the binoculars but change the question text and the hidden object, often substituting both characters for a video game or pop culture reference.

2012image macroclassic

Published October 18, 2026

Where Is Poor began as an uncredited Russian political cartoon showing an obese cigar-smoking man peering through binoculars at the poverty he claims not to see, while his gut hides a hungry panhandler at his feet. Redrawn copies circulated on the Russian imageboard Pikabu as early as August 2012, and English-speaking Reddit took hold of the exploitable in 2019 before a Russian VK revival drove it to peak visibility in early March 2022.

exploitable templates political satire memes delayed virality memes privilege class memes imageboard memes

Overview

The joke works through one visual gag with endless variations. A heavyset character looks through binoculars for something he claims he cannot find, usually with the question "Where is X?" above his head, and the thing he wants is hidden by his own belly1. In the Russian original the character is a wealthy capitalist and the hidden object is a starving child, read as a jab at the rich ignoring the poor beneath their feet1.

Postironic subreddits like r/okbuddyretard and r/comedyheaven lean on the format because the setup is so blunt that drawing attention to it becomes the whole joke3. Common edits replace the panhandler with a video game weapon, a lost Pokémon or a political ideal, and sometimes redraw the fat character himself as a cartoon or anime personality4.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Pikabu (Russian imageboard) / Reddit and VK (viral spread)

Date

2012

Memepedia traces the cartoon to a political drawing by an unknown artist, originally captioned "Ну и где эта бедность?" (translated from Russian: "Well, where is this poverty?"), in which a millionaire looks for the poor through binoculars while a child sits unseen below his stomach1. The earliest documented appearance on the Russian imageboard Pikabu was posted on August 31, 2012, by which point the image was already circulating as a redrawn version rather than the untouched original2.

How It Spread

On July 6, 2019, user /u/plagiarizedessay posted an English version to /r/comedyheaven that collected more than 1,000 upvotes over the following years3. A May 25, 2021 edit on /r/okbuddyretard by /u/insolent-insomniak, titled "I need the golden scar for Victor Royle," gathered over 10,000 upvotes4.

The format saw a second life on Russian VK in early 2022. The meme page known as Peplix began publishing photoshopped variants in late February, including a February 25, 2022 edit that spliced the cartoon with the Never Give Up meme and attracted more than 1,900 reactions5. On March 7, 2022, VK user @Всякая Атмта posted another edit that gathered over 1,000 reactions6, and Memepedia reports the Russian revival peaked around March 5 to 8, 2022, as other entertainment communities ran their own compilations1. English-language postironic subreddits held onto it as a reusable template afterward7.

Timeline

2012-08-31

Earliest documented redrawn copy of the cartoon posted on Pikabu under the title "Ну и где эта бедность?"[2].

2019-07-06

Reddit user /u/plagiarizedessay posts an English version to /r/comedyheaven, collecting more than 1,000 upvotes[3].

2021-05-25

/u/insolent-insomniak posts a Fortnite-themed edit to /r/okbuddyretard that gathers over 10,000 upvotes[4].

2022-02-25

VK meme page Peplix publishes a mashup with the Never Give Up meme that attracts over 1,900 reactions[5].

2022-03-07

VK user @Всякая Атмта posts another photoshopped variant that gathers over 1,000 reactions[6].

2022-03

Russian-language revival peaks around March 5 to 8 as other VK humor pages publish compilations of edits[1].

How to Use This Meme

Editors typically keep the fat man and the binoculars but change the question text and the hidden object, often substituting both characters for a video game, anime or pop culture reference. A common convention is to keep the Russian or English "Where is X?" caption intact so the structure stays legible even when the subject is absurd4.