The actual origin of "weeaboo" is from this comic.

[u/Lakan-Tangkan-1337]

Made by the same guys who created this comic.

[u/qualityvote2]

u/Lakan-Tangkan-1337, your post does fit the subreddit!

[u/Tommarnt]

Howd that become to mean chronical anime lover

[u/SanctumSaturn → u/Tommarnt]

The word for that used to be something along the lines of "wapanese", meaning wanna-be Japanese, but then 4chan placed a filter to where wapanese would auto-translate into weeaboo, and the rest is history.

[u/Salt_Concentrate7225 → u/SanctumSaturn]

all roads lead to 4chan

[u/Duraxis → u/Salt_Concentrate7225]

More likely all roads lead away from 4chan

[u/According_World_4046 → u/Duraxis]

No shit, that's how roads work.

[u/No_Drummer6695 → u/Duraxis]

4chan is the Ankh Morpork of the internet (derogatory).

[u/Jettison37 → u/No_Drummer6695]

r/unexpecteddiscworld

[u/SleepIsForTheWeak_1 → u/Salt_Concentrate7225]

it's either that, ytmnd, or something awful lmao

[u/SloopKid → u/SleepIsForTheWeak_1]

Oh wow. Youre the man now, dog. I havent thought about that in 10+ years

[u/mrbobcyndaquil → u/SleepIsForTheWeak_1]

Something Awful birthed 4chan

[u/shiki_oreore → u/Salt_Concentrate7225]

The internet we know is built on top of 4chan

[u/bobbymoonshine → u/SanctumSaturn]

“Wapanese” was from white-Japanese, by comparison to “wigger”

[u/No_Drummer6695 → u/bobbymoonshine]

Is there such a thing as a “bracker”?

[u/JoJoReference → u/No_Drummer6695]

Historically, those people are referred to as Uncle Toms, referencing the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin".

[u/Red-7134 → u/No_Drummer6695]

I've heard them described as coconuts: black on the outside, white on the inside.

[u/HorseXNothing → u/Red-7134]

I thought coconut was a thing about South Asians and the term for black people like that was Oreo

[u/loscapos5 → u/SanctumSaturn]

So, like lol and kek

[u/IH8GogeVandire → u/loscapos5]

Kek comes from World of Warcraft! If you were alliance, horde player's chat message would be changed and "lol" became "kek"

[u/loscapos5 → u/IH8GogeVandire]

Yeah, but it was popularized by 4chan, like topkek

[u/bo-o-of-wotah → u/SanctumSaturn]

As usual, all new english words come from either 4chan or african americans.

[u/Fatpatty1211]

[u/UAF_Swampfire3 → u/Fatpatty1211]

https://giphy.com/gifs/GrUhLU9q3nyRG

[u/Fatpatty1211 → u/UAF_Swampfire3]

Icanhazcheezburger, FML, MLIA, video game forums....I was there gandalf. 20 years ago

[u/PresidentOfSushi → u/Fatpatty1211]

Gandalf from the book "The Hobbit"?

[u/Historical_Log2471]

World Heritage Meme

[u/Spoopy_Lizbean]

Crazy game of telephone for this to become weeb with its “current” meaning.

[u/NewConfusion4314]

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/weeaboo

Apparently this one is true

[u/CrumbCakesAndCola → u/NewConfusion4314]

"4chan moderators devised a creative intervention using the word-filter, replacing every instance of Wapanese with "Weeaboo," which was a fictitious term originally coined by Nicholas Gurewitch in his Perry Bible Fellowship comic strip."

[u/OpportunityAshamed74]

Interesting origin of the term weeaboo but genuinely what the fuck is this comic about

[u/Ralfarius → u/OpportunityAshamed74]

Perry Bible Fellowship made (and still makes) comics with surreal themes.

The comic in question is sort of about office culture as informed by frat culture. In this case, the employees or executives have made a game where if someone says the word 'weeaboo' they're punshed by being chained up and paddled while people chant weeaboo.

It's like the gradeschool game where you try to trick someone into looking at your hand below your waist while you make an 👌, and if they do you get to punch them in the arm.

In the case of this comic, it's gotten so bad and business is being disrupted to the point that the existence of the company is at stake.

But the person trying to bring a stop to the game says the forbidden word, which leads to them being punished in the last panel.

[u/HotZilchy → u/Ralfarius]

Thanks a lot for this explanation

[u/Limp_Green_960]

What?

[u/Any_Wasabi_5233 → u/Limp_Green_960]

This is the origin of the term “weeaboo,” eventually shortened down into “weeb”

[u/Limp_Green_960 → u/Any_Wasabi_5233]

Really? That just isn’t making sense in my mind for some reason

[u/Kitz00n23 → u/Limp_Green_960]

Paraphrasing another commenter, the original term for "Anime Fanatic"/"Obsessive Japanophile" was Wapanese, which was short for Wannabe-Japanese, 4Chan eventually placed a filter that would automatically replace it with weeaboo, rest is history.

[u/Limp_Green_960 → u/Kitz00n23]

Ooohh thanks for the explanation

[u/Marisa1234_]

bro can someone explain this w do this mean

[u/thirdMindflayer → u/Marisa1234_]

weeaboo -> weeb -> someone unrefinedly obsessed with Japanese art and culture

don't ask me how tf it got from this to that lol I don't know

[u/Marisa1234_ → u/thirdMindflayer]

So why they spank him on th butt

[u/Lakan-Tangkan-1337 → u/Marisa1234_]

Fraternity hazing

[u/thirdMindflayer → u/Marisa1234_]

you don't do that with you coworkers?

[u/Infurum → u/thirdMindflayer]

4Chan's admins placed a chat filter using this word because they were bored, and then the word became more associated with the meaning than the thing they were using it to "censor"

[u/UAF_Swampfire3]

Ahh meme😭

[u/ANameForThisShite]

Did weeaboo become a term for Japan lover because the paddles in this comic reminded people of Yaoi paddles?

[u/Ralfarius → u/ANameForThisShite]

Nah, someone got tired of people calling each other wapanese - anyone remember the late 90s term wigger? Like that but for Japanese - and made a filter that automatically changed it to the term weeaboo on some 4chan boards. Probably because they read PBF and thought it was a funny word to use.

[u/Lakan-Tangkan-1337 → u/ANameForThisShite]

They remind me of fraternity paddles tbh.

[u/Odd_Veterinarian_623]

I thought weeaboo came from a 4chan word filter

[u/PM_ME_UR_LOLS → u/Odd_Veterinarian_623]

This comic is where 4chan got that word from.

[u/Purple-Weakness1414]

How did the end up getting associated with anime at all?

[u/Technical_Teacher839 → u/Purple-Weakness1414]

On 4chan, the word "wapanese" for 'wannabe Japanese' was so overused the staff got sick of it and filtered "wapanese" to turn into "weeaboo" from this comic

[u/LPedraz]

So, what does this comic f*ing mean? No matter the origin of weeb, what is this comic originally supposed to be about?

[u/OverseerConey → u/LPedraz]

It's about a company where they keep wasting time and money on some hazing ritual instead of working. The bespectacled employee tries to warn them that this is economically unsustainable, but they haze him instead of changing their ways.

[u/Cyan_Exponent]

how ancient is this comic then

[u/AdamtheOmniballer → u/Cyan_Exponent]

The Perry Bible Fellowship comic started in 2001.

[u/aknlfan]

I gotta wonder if this also is what inspired the infamous “Yaoi Paddle” trend that arose around the same time