The Yeonmi Park meme, or the Yeonmi Park In America meme, shows the North Korean defector on Joe Rogan’s podcast alongside bizarre stories of government oppression. This comes from a real interview in which Park told stories of her alleged experiences in her home country that were extreme to the point that some questioned whether they were real.
This reaction image of Park may now appear any time there’s a weird or shocking story coming out of any country.
Meme basics:
- Meme Creator: Anonymous
- Meme Type: Reaction image
- First Appearance: Aug. 15, 2021
- Origin Source: 4chan
- Used to Convey: Humor around bizarre or extreme stories
- Peak Popularity: May 2023
What is the Yeonmi Park meme?
The screenshot of Park on “The Joe Rogan Experience” shows her speaking into a mic in a white sweater and headphones with a red curtain behind her. People sometimes pair this with an image of Rogan during the same episode, sitting with a blank expression and his mouth ajar as he listens.
The caption that goes along with it may or may not be in quotes but is meant to be read as though she is speaking those words. It’s often a relatively long caption summarizing a strange and/or political news story and may be meant to compare the tale’s nation of origin to North Korea. This may or may not include any number of layers of irony.
Who is Yeonmi Park and why is she so famous?
The 31-year-old woman from North Korea gained fame in the 2010s by writing and speaking on her experiences under the nation’s harsh dictatorship and fleeing to China in 2007 when she was only 13. She captured international interest for the information she provided about a notoriously isolationist and secretive country.
Park has published two books outlining her journey from North Korea to the U.S. and has appeared on many podcasts, news channels, and talk shows since 2011. However, other North Korean defectors and experts on the country have called her accounts into question, with some accusing her of exaggerating or lying to gain celebrity status.
Meme origins: The Yeonmi Park Joe Rogan interview
Park appeared as a guest on Rogan’s podcast on Aug. 3, 2021, where she regaled him with horrific tales about what she allegedly experienced and witnessed while living in North Korea and while escaping to China and later to the U.S.
“In North Korea, every room has to have a portrait of the Kims,” she claimed during the interview. “The inspector comes out of nowhere in the middle of the night and touches the portraits. If they see any dust… you can get executed.”
While North Korea has a reputation for being under a brutal and intensely controlling dictatorship, some questioned her tales and her motives, citing her family’s high-ranking status in the government, certain inconsistencies in her stories, and the utterly absurd details in some of her stories.
4chan starts the meme
On Aug. 15, 2021, an anonymous 4chan user posted the first example of the Yeonmi Park meme still available online. Under two screenshots of Park from the podcast, the user tells a disturbing, bizarre, and circular tale of hardship meant to either cast doubt on the defector’s stories or simply joke about how extreme her stories were.
Regardless, her image soon became synonymous with both examples of government oppression and people who exaggerate hardships or have some kind of victim complex.
The Yeonmi Park meme spreads
As Park gave more interviews over the years, the meme format spread to social media sites like Twitter where users took one of the screenshots from the 4chan post, paired it with Rogan, and made up similarly absurd stories about life in North Korea.
As time went on, online jokesters began to use a different screenshot of Park and cut Rogan out of the picture in order to make jokes about life in the U.S. or other nations, often referencing real news stories or issues. Others made jokes about popular fiction settings and plots.
Examples
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- Americans keep joking about North Korea bombing them for Christmas—and it’s only kind of funny
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