Wait, so is that, like, Chinese cartoons?

This meme features a stock photo of a woman with a disgusted, confused, judgmental facial expression, paired with text that reads 'When you tell the average mf in 2009 that you watch anime'. The implied punchline, referenced in the original post title, is that the confused person would respond 'Wait, so is that, like, Chinese cartoons?' It references the common stereotype from the late 2000s where most people outside of anime fan circles were unfamiliar with anime, often misidentifying it as Chinese produced animation and judging people who watched it as weird or niche. The joke plays on the large cultural shift between how anime was perceived in 2009 versus the present day, where anime is far more mainstream, widely recognized, and socially accepted.

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When you tell the average mf in 2009 that you watch anime

Overview

This meme features a stock photo of a woman with a disgusted, confused, judgmental facial expression, paired with text that reads 'When you tell the average mf in 2009 that you watch anime'. The implied punchline, referenced in the original post title, is that the confused person would respond 'Wait, so is that, like, Chinese cartoons?' It references the common stereotype from the late 2000s where most people outside of anime fan circles were unfamiliar with anime, often misidentifying it as Chinese produced animation and judging people who watched it as weird or niche. The joke plays on the large cultural shift between how anime was perceived in 2009 versus the present day, where anime is far more mainstream, widely recognized, and socially accepted.

Origin notes

This meme was sourced from an RSS feed for the Reddit Meme community. It uses a widely circulated stock reaction photo of a disgusted woman, paired with relatable text about 2000s public perception of anime, formatted as a standard relatable reaction meme. The joke draws on a long-running internet gag about non-anime fans incorrectly referring to all East Asian animation, including Japanese anime, as 'Chinese cartoons'.

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