Once merely obscure inside jokes on the image board 4chan, the "rage face" comics that now appear widely on the Internet have have been toughened by natural selection as they evolved into a dominant species of Internet meme. The amateur cartoons, made using a recurring set of expressive characters, are used by a growing international community. Far from being insignificant doodles, the faces are now an accepted and standardized form of online communication used to tell stories that can be quick and funny or serious and deeply personal.

Because they have become so ubiquitous, and because any surfer worth his salt should have a working knowledge of top Internet memes, we've created this Field Guide to Rage Faces. In any expedition, preparation is key; for Internet adventurers, the ability to tell a “Challenge Accepted” from a “Me Gusta” can make all the difference. So kick off your boots, set your pith helmet aside, and enjoy a snifter of brandy as we explore the evolution, habitat, and social characteristics of rage faces.

Origin of the species

The first rage faces appeared in comics on 4chan around the middle of 2007. Though the original number of characters was small, they carried the undeniable traits of rage faces as we recognize them today. Comics were short (typically a few panels long) and featured simple plotlines involving only a handful of characters. The artwork was often amateur, but the primary focus was always on creating faces that showed a recognizable emotion (as the name implies, this was typically rage) rather than on the quality of the artwork itself. The poorly drawn, expressive faces not only made the comics funnier, they communicated the characters' feelings in an easily understandable way.

They also had the virtue of transcending particular languages. According to Ryan Swanson, one of the moderators of Reddit's rage comic subforum, F7U12 (the name itself is an inside joke referring to the correct number of "F"s and "U"s in an exclamation of rage), "The simplified faces are just exaggerated expressions, so they're pretty much universal in that respect. That allows them to be used as a tool in storytelling."

Dan Awesome, webmaster of Rage Maker, a website where users can make their own rage comics from a library of stock faces, believes that a key quality of rage faces allows them to be universal. "A perfect example is the sad 'Okay' face," he said, "Just looking at that face gives you a pretty good understanding of how that person feels. Expressing that exact same feeling in words would take some creative writing."

Though many of the original comics on 4chan were drawn from scratch, it soon became commonplace for artists to reuse faces that did a particularly good job of showing a certain emotion. The more these faces were reused, the more they encouraged reuse, and the common threads began to appear. As is the case in any population, the fittest individuals flourished and multiplied, while weaker specimens faded into obscurity.

The evolution of rage

Rage faces slowly migrated from 4chan into other communities. There, they gained popularity and expanded their numbers as artists introduced new faces, and particularly humorous comics went viral in their communities. Though the faces were no longer exclusive to any single forum, they stayed true to the originals in style.

More people got involved, the cartoons mutated and evolved, and like any successful species, they adapted to fit into a wide variety of habitats. "You can trace back the origins to 4chan so you can say [the faces are 4chan's] baby, but it's evolved on such a wide scale that it's gone beyond anyone's single ownership," Swanson said. "Mostly the original faces are from 4chan, but a lot of the newer faces have come out of F7U12, or other places like FunnyJunk."

Here are ten of the most common:

Face Description Cereal Guy: A versatile character, Cereal Guy generally express surly skepticism (if he’s just eating), but he’s been known to spit his cereal everywhere if he is shocked or surprised. Forever Alone: Forever Alone is a sad, lonely individual with no friends and few options in life. He can be found in any situation where someone is feeling morose or, as the name implies, alone. F--k Yea: Almost the polar opposite of Forever Alone, F--k Yea walks with a swagger that can only come from victory, be it from a major accomplishment or from successfully handling something in everyday life Herp Derp: A character no one in the Rage Kingdom enjoys, Herp Derp can sometimes be simply obtuse and dumb, but more commonly he's self-centered, uninformed, and completely sure of himself. LOL Guy: An easy guy to understand, LOL Guy howls with laughter at the funny situations he finds in rage comics. Me Gusta: His name means “I like” in Spanish, which is exactly what he expresses. Me Gusta can be used to express enjoyment in anything from the perverse (such as odd sexual activities) to the mundane (such as petting a cat). Okay Guy: If you’ve ever felt powerless to change something, you understand Okay Guy. He doesn’t stand up for himself in any situation; he simply sighs and put up with what life throws at him. Poker Face: Poker Face tries to hide his embarrassment in any awkward or uncomfortable situation, trying to pretend nothing is out of the ordinary as he waits for the situation to resolve itself. Rage Guy: One of the most basic characters, Rage Guy expresses pure, blind rage, typically directed at life’s small, everyday annoyances (like Troll Face’s antics). Rage Guy has also spawned several spinoff characters, such as Derp. Troll Face: One of the oldest and most widely-used faces, Troll Face is a prankster who makes others' lives more difficult for his own amusement. His wide, toothy grin perpetually snickers at his victims.

While repeated usage could reinforce the meanings of the faces, in some cases repetition gradually led to experimentation; over time, some common faces changed their meanings.

"A perfect example is the 'Me Gusta' face," said Awesome. "Its original intent was to portray that you like something you're not supposed to like. Often times, though, the 'Me Gusta' face is used for things that you are supposed to like. People accepted the misusage over time."

According to Swanson, "Me Gusta" is more the exception than the rule, though. "If [faces] are used incorrectly, those comics are less successful," he said. "Only the ones that followed the track are the ones that got more popular."

In addition, many new faces have come from outside the rage comic communities. An independent artist created "Cereal Guy" for his own comic, Swanson said, "and that character was lifted from his specific comic and got adopted into the rage comic family."

In another case, the creator of the now ubiquitous "Trollface," a deviantART artist known as Whynne, attempted to claim copyright infringement after the face appeared on Reddit; it hasn't stopped "Trollface's" widespread use. For the most part, the online community of rage comic makers defines the faces' use and ensures that the fittest specimens survive without worrying too much about outside forces and copyright laws.