Background

On 1st April each year Reddit hosts an April fools themed event, and in 2017 that was the creation of pixel placing game called /r/place. It consisted of a large white canvas, on which Reddit users could place individual pixels of colors of their choice. There was a time delay between each pixel placing meaning a user could only place one pixel every 10 minutes.

Fuck Me v Fuck Mike

Two groups of users were attempting to write two different words at the same position of the canvas. One group of users were attempting to write "Fuck Me" and another were trying to write "Fuck Mike". As a result of the battle between the two groups, the words Fuck Mek appears to have become a compromise between the two parties. During the battle, the subreddit /r/fuckmek was used as a way of coordinating the defenses against 'the blue corner'.

A period of silence

/r/place lasted for 72 hours, after which the canvas was frozen and the sub /r/fuckmek fell into disuse. In late August 2017 one of /r/fuckmek's moderators /u/-Yiffing posted a message entitled

If this post reaches 2 upvotes /r/FuckMek will become a Mek-hating subreddit.

Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) and related content

MEK is a chemical solvent that is used for various applications, including as a cement in model building. Initial content on imgur and reddit was mock cautions about the dangers of MEK, frequently using the skeletal formula, which resembles a stick man, as part of image macros.

Content developed from mock cautions to variations on existing popular memes, mostly created by members of the /r/fuckmek reddit community.