PONS://MEMEMAN
ON ROBINHOOD CHAIN
THE FACE BEHIND STONKS
Documented in 2014. Used in Layers of Irony in 2015. Put in front of a stock-market image and captioned Stonks in 2017.
0x000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 / ORIGIN
BORN FROM A WONKY 3D HEAD
The earliest documented Meme Man post was published by the Facebook page Special meme fresh on August 9, 2014. The page later said the head came from an old, wonky human-modeling attempt on 4chan’s /3DCG/ board. The original modeler and creation date remain unverified.
- 2015OCT 24
Special meme fresh posts the four-panel comic later known as Layers of Irony.
KYM: MEME MAN ↗ - 2017JUN 05
The first documented Stonks image is posted: Meme Man, a stock-market backdrop and one deliberate misspelling.
KYM: STONKS ↗ - 2019WIDER SPREAD
Stonks Edits spread, recasting Meme Man as occupations and activities with intentionally misspelled labels.
KYM: MEME MAN WURDS ↗ - 2021JAN
The GameStop trading story pushes “stonks” beyond its earlier Twitter, Reddit and online-trading circles.
MERRIAM-WEBSTER ↗
RESEARCH NOTE
SOURCES
These are dates in the surviving public record. They document posts and later spread; they do not prove when the 3D model itself was created.
- 01Special meme fresh — 2016 forum account ↗
The page operator’s own account of the model’s uncertain 4chan /3DCG/ origin.
- 02Know Your Meme — Meme Man ↗
Chronology for the earliest documented image, Layers of Irony, Stonks and Meme Man Wurds.
- 03Know Your Meme — Stonks ↗
Chronology of the original June 2017 image and its later spread.
- 04Merriam-Webster — Stonks ↗
Language history, the joke’s meaning and its wider visibility during the 2021 GameStop story.
- 05GameSpot — Diamond Hanz ↗
Contemporary reporting on the April 2021 Fortnite crossover.
02 / THE COLLECTION
MEME MAN MEMES
03 / STONKS
BEFORE MEME STOCKS, THERE WAS STONKS.
Special meme fresh posted the first documented Stonks image on June 5, 2017. It placed Meme Man in front of a stock-market image and deliberately misspelled “stocks.” The word became shorthand for vague financial understanding and poor financial decisions.
STONKS: A DELIBERATE MISSPELLING OF STOCKSSOURCE: MERRIAM-WEBSTER ↗04 / WHY NOW
THE MEME MEETS THE MARKET
Meme Man was attached to a stock-market joke in 2017. This independent community project uses Pons as its launch route and Robinhood Chain as its onchain destination. That does not imply an official Robinhood partnership.
05 / ENTER THE MEMEVERSE
MEMEMAN HAS ENTERED THE TRENCHES.
The original face of market memes is going onchain.
0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000MEMEMAN is an independent community project and is not affiliated with Know Your Meme or Robinhood.