Chinlet

About

"Chinlet" is an internet slang term that combines the words "chin" and "manlet". The term perjoratively describes a person with a weak or recessed chin and a visible overbite. In meme culture, chinlets are often mocked, judged by their looks or portrayed in a negative light.

Origin

The word "chinlet" was used for the first time on 4chan's weapons board /k/, on March 11th, 2014, in a thread about YouTuber Eric Blendford (known on YouTube as "Iraqveteran8888") and the Moss Pawn gun shop. When an anonymous user mentioned The Crimson Chin (a character with a comically large chin from The Fairly Odd Parents), he was replied to with "The chinlet" (shown below, left).^[1] The second time the word "chinlet" was used in a 4chan post, it was on July 1st, 2014, in a /tv/ thread dedicated to Baneposting. An anonymous user called John Daggett (played by Ben Mendelsohn) a chinlet and compared him to an earthworm (shown below, right).^[2]

Spread

The term gradually spread on 4chan's various boards, being used in at least 29,625 posts ever since.^[3][4][5] Images of chinlets (actual people with recessed chins or jaws) have also been used hundreds of times, often to greentext posts and opinions of certain anonymous users.^[6][7][8][9] Some particularly famous chinlets are Andrew Tate, Michael Cera, LeafyIsHere, ReviewBrah, Michael B. Jordan, Kim Nam-joon, Vin Diesel and Moneybagg Yo.

The mockery of chinlets spread also to Twitter and Reddit over the years, with their appearance being the factor of various memes and meme formats. On November 14th, 2019, the image of a chinlet with "Thanks For The Gold Kind, Stranger" was posted on r/okbuddyretard by ShifterSamy, which received over 1,300 points in 3 years (shown below, left).^[10] A post titled "Chinlet" showing the Yes Chad shaved and with a recessed chin was posted on r/196 by Brotherly-Moment on November 21st, 2020 (shown below, right). The post received over 75 points in 2 years.^[11]

The variant of the Yes Chad with a recessed chin came from a Wojak Comic in which the Trad Girl reacted with pursed lips to the Chad after he shaved his beard (shown below, left). The comic was posted on July 25th, 2020 by sasukeplox on Memedroid, and received 990 reactions in 2 years.^[12] A nearly identical comic, but this time with a real chinlet's lower third photoshopped on the Yes Chad was posted on r/antimeme by Mystic_Gaming1 on April 6th, 2023, and received over 2,100 points in a month (shown below, right).^[13]

On February 12th, 2022, the lower third of a chinlet with a caption against AR-15 rifles was posted on r/GunMemes by LazarusDaDwagon and it received over 3,000 points in a year (shown below, left).^[14] On November 24th, 2022, the official Twitter account of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II posted an image of Ghost's side profile, showing that he was a chinlet (shown below, right). The image, captioned with "Foap" received over 16,900 likes and over 1,135 retweets in 4 months.^[15]

Related Memes

LeafyIsHere

LeafyIsHere is the YouTube handle of Calvin Vail, an American video game streamer and vlogger known for his satirical commentaries and narrations while playing a variety of first-person video games, most notably the surf mode in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Vail is widely known on the Internet as a chinlet after iDubbbz accused him of being insecure about his chin during a Content Cop video about him.

Andrew Tate

Emory Andrew Tate III or Cobra Tate is a former professional kickboxer and Big Brother contestant and current YouTuber, podcaster and content creator known for his controversial self-help videos where he shares his opinions on dating, women, business, being an alpha-male and making money. Tate is commonly made fun of for being a chinlet, particularly when his shocked face emphasized his recessed lower third.

Nordic / Mediterranean

Nordic / Mediterranean refers to a series of memes in which various races, sub-races, and nationalities, primarily Nordic and Mediterranean, are compared to each other through the use of archetypal exploitable images. Said images are often captioned within a Learn The Difference, It Could Save Your Life style format. The trend gained popularity on /pol/ and other 4chan boards in late 2016, with a sub-meme known as Yes Chad / Nordic Gamer spinning off in early August 2019, with the format developing into the Wojak comics meme archetype in 2020. The original meme, as well as subsequent variants often portrayed the negative sub-race as chinlets.

Super Aero-Chad vs. Genetic Failure

Superior Aero-Chad vs. Genetic Failure refers to a series of exploitable image macros showing a profile view of someone labeled a "superior aero-chad," meaning aerodynamically built, next to someone labeled "genetic failure" who is not aerodynamically built. The meme, which is similar to the Chad vs. Virgin format, was first posted to Facebook in October 2021 and became increasingly popular over the following years. The meme format, as well as the original meme, portrays chinlets as the "Aero-Chads".

Goebbels Chin Edits

Goebbels Chin Edits are a series of exploitable photoshops featuring Nazi Germany's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels in a portrait photograph that shows him from the side. Originally being only a semi-subtle change to Goebbels' chin to make it seem very recessed, the photo spawned multiple parodic edits in which Goebbels' chin and the rest of his face take various shapes and distortions.

I Look Nordic As Fuck. Prussian German Ethnicity

"I Look Nordic As Fuck. Prussian German Ethnicity" is a statement made by Discord user Sigismund Steinhäuser [NSDAP 卐] when he sent a picture of himself to other users, in what appeared to be a Neo-Nazi server. Steinhäuser's appearance and his statement became the target of memes and parodies online, which are often used as mockery towards Nordicists and Neo-Nazis.

Victoria II German Nationalist

Victoria II German Nationalist is a name for a series of images (some using edited stock photos) of someone (in many cases a kid or a chinlet) looking at an expansionist Germany on a map, usually in Victoria II by Paradox Interactive, with text showing that the person has nationalist or of right-leaning views. These are used to mock German nationalists online, especially on 4chan boards.

Chudjak

Chudjak, also known as Poljak, is another variation of the long-standing character Wojak, also known as "Feels Guy," but actually has its origin from the meme known as Le /pol/ Face or Le Pollack. The parent meme, which originated on 4chan, is meant to depict the cliché appearance of the average 4chan /pol/ user, incels, far-right public shooters and other similar characters. It was modeled to resemble Patrick Crusius, the shooter from the 2019 El Paso Shooting. The Chudjak is depicted by design as a chinlet.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References