The Hackerman meme pokes fun at someone’s technical prowess, referring to the eponymous character from 2015’s Kung Fury and later, Rami Malek’s character from Mr. Robot. The character’s inflated sense of worth with simple techy solutions has been fodder for memes ever since.
Meme basics
- Meme Creator:Â Unknown
- Meme Type: Macro, Reaction
- First Appearance:Â r/kungfury via Reddit
- Origin Source:Â Kung Fury
- Peak Popularity: November 2016
- Popular Variations: Two popular variations of this meme exist—the original version from Kung Fury and a later version with Rami Malek’s character from Mr. Robot.
Origin
Hackerman is a character in the 2015 film Kung Fury. The 80s-style martial arts comedy was crowdfunded on Kickstarter the year before, and the project stayed true to its original description.
During an unfortunate series of events a friend of Kung Fury is assasinated by the most dangerous kung fu master criminal of all time; Adolf Hitler, a.k.a Kung Führer.
Kung Fury decides to travel back in time, to Nazi Germany, in order to kill Hitler and end the Nazi empire once and for all. Kung Fury is a visually spectacular action comedy that has it’s foundation in 80s cop movies.
Hackerman, played by Leopold Nilsson, is the technical whiz who makes the time travel in the film possible. His cheeky introduction is where the meme originates.
Spread
A Reddit competition run by the team behind the Kickstarter took place the week of the film’s release. In that competition, fans were encouraged to photoshop Hackerman, sucked into space, into different scenarios for a chance to win official film merch.
The competition introduced the meme-passionate to the character, which opened the door for other Hackerman memes. The memes often poke fun at low-level tech skills, from connecting to something via Bluetooth to figuring out the app that goes with your microwave.
Popular variations
In August 2015, a Hackerman meme featuring Rami Malek‘s character, Elliot Alderson, which he portrayed on Mr. Robot from 2015 to 2019. The same context applies to the Malek versions of the meme as they do the Kung Fury version.
Meme examples
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