About
Juan is a name that is often used in image macros as a pun associated with a Spanish or Mexican ethnic stereotype. Images with these captions sometimes use a photo of a smiling man wearing an oversized sombrero, which also appears in the advice animal series Merry Mexican.[1]
Origin
Text-based jokes using “Juan” as a pun for “one” have been shared online since as early as July 2000, when “The Infamous Juan Joke”[2] was shared on encyclopedic website Everything2. The joke consists of a lengthy absurd story about the political career of a man named Juan. However, after he attempted to murder his pet aardvark, he was sentenced to death by firing squad.
The firing squad levied their guns at him. ‘Ready…….’ ‘Aim………’ Suddenly, and without warning, the aardvark leapt from the shadows, aimed at Juan and fired a golf gun. The shot boomed throughout the town, and the shot itself went clear through Juan’s heart and out his back.
You may be asking yourself in between sobs what a golf gun is? This in itself is the morale of the story….
The answer…well, I don’t know. But it sure made a hole-in-Juan.
Spread
In the 2000s, text-based Juan jokes appeared on Jokes4Us[3], AnandTech Forums[4] and The Escapist.[5] In March 2005, MexicanJokes.net[6] launched, containing many jokes based on cultural stereotypes, including a number of Juan puns. In July 2010, a Facebook fan page titled Juan More Joke[7] was created, posting dozens of Juan puns as status updates. On October 20th, 2011, the page posted their first image, with a Mexican stereotype caricature of the Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi. As of April 2013, the image has been shared 30 times.
On December 1st, 2011, an image titled “Occupy Tijuana”[8] was shared on the /r/Funny subreddit, depicting two half-naked men wearing large sombreros with the caption “We are the Juan percent.” On June 27th, 2012, the Facebook fan page Juan on Juan Memes[9] launched, posting a number of different image macros and advice animals. Throughout 2012 and 2013, Juan puns appeared on We Know Memes[10], Reddit[11], Meme Center[12] and Memebase.[13]
Notable Examples
Related Meme: Merry Mexican
Merry Mexican is an advice animal image macro series depicting a jolly-looking Mexican man wearing an oversized sombrero, smiling. One of the earliest image macros was posted to FunnyJunk[14] on January 11th, 2012, making a joke about green cards (shown below, left). A week later, a Merry Mexican image commenting on SOPA/PIPA (shown below, right) was posted to Reddit’s /r/AdviceAnimals[15], where it earned nearly 8,000 upvotes and more than 1,200 points overall before being archived. The image macro series has also appeared on The Meta Picture[16], LOLsnaps[17] and Geekfill.[18] As of April 2013, the Merry Mexican Quickmeme[19] page has more than 1,200 submissions.
Search Interest
External References
[1]Quickmeme – Merry Mexican
[2]Everything2 – The Infamous Juan Joke
[3]Jokes4Us – Spain Jokes
[4]AnandTech Forums – what did the mexican fireman name his children? with another joke now
[5]The Escapist – “But they are twins. If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Amal.”
[7]Facebook – Juan More Joke
[8]Reddit – Occupy Tijuana
[9]Facebook – Juan On Juan Memes
[10]We Know Memes – I Hate Tacos Said No Juan Ever
[11]Reddit – /r/memes: Juan
[12]Meme Center – Not Every Juan Is Unique
[13]Memebase – Posts tagged “juan”
[14]FunnyJunk – Merry Mexican
[15]Reddit – Merry Mexican On SOPA\PIPA
[16]The Meta Picture – Merry Mexican
[17]LOLsnaps – Merry Mexican
[18]Geekfill – Merry Mexican
[19]Quickmeme – Merry Mexican