If you surf the Internet often enough, and on social networks you feel like a fish in water, you have probably heard and seen how “Karl!” is added to some expressions at the end.
However, if you don’t know why they say “Karl” at the end of a sentence, it means that you don’t sit on the Internet that much. But today you will be able to deal with this issue, and after reading our article, you will finally find out the origin and meaning of using this expression.
What it is
Today, an expression using "Karl!" has become an internet meme. It is quite difficult to look through the news feed on VK or Facebook and not find a single joke related to this meme. Often such jokes are accompanied by a video frame showing a crying man and a sad boy in a cowboy hat with his head down.
Origin of the meme
But where did this meme come from? Fans of foreign series and TV shows are probably aware of the existence of such a series as The Walking Dead. Even if they haven't watched it, they've probably heard the name because the show has quite high ratings and has been shown all over the world.
The son of the protagonist in this series was called Carl. As for the frame itself, which eventually became a meme, according to the plot of the series, at this moment the protagonist's wife died during childbirth, and the protagonist, realizing this, bent down near his son and cries. Of course, it’s not funny to call this scene a funny language, but after someone from the “minds” of the Internet thought of creating a meme from this frame, she got a second life.
Using a meme
As for the semantic load, the algorithm of jokes built using this freeze frame from the series, it is as follows:
- The boy (Carl) in the picture asks his father for anything, be it a new phone, new running shoes, money for a video game or entertainment.
- His father, through tears, answers him that in his childhood they had tin cans instead of phones, they sealed their sneakers with tape, and instead of X-Box and PlayStation, they played Wolf and Eggs, for example.
- To add emotional coloring to what was said, and to ironize their words even more, “Do you understand, Karl !?” is added to what was said.
When someone first created such a meme in 2013, the Internet community picked it up very quickly, and today, perhaps, millions of different jokes on this topic can be found on the Web.
And if you're wondering why they say "Karl!" at the end of the sentence, most likely, it is said with irony.
Here is our communication and moved to the Internet. Numerous memes have taken the place of the usual clericalism and set expressions of speech. Sometimes we pick up such a pattern, but we ourselves have no idea where it comes from at all. And now we will talk here, on the Internet, about the Internet. Let's talk about the origin of one of the latest popular memes - "..., Carl!".
The phrase quite recently met everywhere, now its use has somewhat subsided. So where did the expression "Karl!" come from?
hello series lovers
So, who is this Karl and what did she do that made his name so popular as an expressive particle?
An inexperienced viewer of knowledge of history will be thrown ideas about some Frankish king. Who, if not Charlemagne, can conquer the world, albeit in this way? But no! The whole thing is completely different.
So, it's time to stop tormenting the reader looking for answers and introduce him to the hero-bearer of this famous name. We bring to your attention the most famous series filmed on comics: "The Walking Dead". Carl in it is the name of a teenage boy who stayed with his father in a post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies.
We are sure that those who know this multi-part film firsthand have never been in the ranks of the ignorant. But for the rest, we will further tell which particular scene from the series will give an exhaustive answer to the question of where the expression "Karl!"
Description of the context in which the phrase appeared
The search for the origins of the meme we know leads to the third season of The Walking Dead. At the end of the fourth series, perhaps one of the most tragic in the history of the plot, there is a scene between the main character, Sheriff Rick Grimes, and his son Carl.
For reference: before healthy people, which include our heroes, it was destroyed. The sheriff's wife goes into labor, after which she does not survive. Karl becomes a witness to the death, and with this news he stands before his father.
So, the scene: a silent, grief-stricken boy, a man who understands tragedy from his eloquent son. Then the scene takes on a dramatic development: Rick Grimes screaming and clutching his head on the ground, and Carl still stands in a stupor, simply heartbroken. At the end of his desperate exclamations, filled with suffering, the man pronounces the name of his son several times. That's how it all started.
Since the premiere of this scene (November 2012), some time has passed until the phrase became a meme. Now you can tell your friends yourself where the expression "Karl!" came from.
History of the development of the phrase
First, the phrase "Karl!" they tried to popularize, along with a video segment, scenes of a conversation between father and son. But for some reason this option did not receive much distribution.
Then the fans began to joke about various topics from The Walking Dead, including beating the visual drama scene in their own humorous way. With such a mood, a selection of the best Rick Grimes expressions was published already in 2013. Fans were not too lazy to select the best material, among which there were many photos of this scene with various dialogue options.
The phrase "shot" only in 2015, when in the city of Stavropol on Maslenitsa, local chefs intended to bake a three-meter pancake. The visitors of the holiday did not see the dishes, but the pieces of the failed pancake were handed out. "The pancake was handed out to people with shovels. Shovels, Karl!" - just asks from the tongue.
Phrase meaning
We have already learned where, when and in what context the name of Karl was pronounced, we got acquainted with the series that became the "parent" of this meme. So what does the expression "Karl!" mean?
In a scene from the series, Rick Grimes, after a woeful monologue, repeats one of his phrases to his son with special expression, at the end saying his name. The verbal formula of the meme was formed in the following form: a statement, a repetition of the most active element of the phrase with enhanced expression, the ubiquitous "..., Karl!".
Frequent use of the meme formula
So we know where the expression "..., Karl!" came from. Now the most common picture is a comic book (based on a photo from the series) with a father and son, where the latter complains about something, and the father answers him. Often the father's answer says that it used to be worse. Worse, Carl!
How many nostalgic moments folk meme-creativity recorded in pictures-memes with Rick and Carl! And how, instead of phones, children used to take cups tied with a thread, and about how they put films on all night for loading, and how in the summer they went to weed potatoes in the garden instead of the sea.
Summary
So, now we know where the expression "Karl!", one of the most popular memes on the Internet, came from. It turned out that it was the action-packed series "The Walking Dead" that sent us such a hello. It is in the third season of the series that we are turned on by the search for the origins of the meme, and not into history, where one would think that Charlemagne is mentioned in this way, for example. Although now the decline in the popularity of the phrase, the humor inherent in it does not leave us.
We wish you good mood and pleasant pastime! Have fun, Carl!
“Karl” in Russia began to end the phrase not so long ago, around the beginning of 2015, when an Internet meme about a boy in a wide-brimmed hat and his father began to gain popularity among the Russian audience.
The exclamation "Karl!" first sounded in the post-apocalyptic series The Walking Dead, and on November 14, 2012, a user under the nickname MichiganSt35 uploaded a serial passage to YouToube in which the main character Rick Grimes falls into hysterics from the realization that his wife died during childbirth, and his son Carl, the same boy in a hat, whose image will later become a meme, silently stands nearby. This excerpt, to which the author, in his desire to “fuck”, chose a rather non-standard name - Rick Finds Out That Carl is Gay (“Rick finds out that Carl is gay”), did not attract the attention of a wide audience, however, in December of the same year, Buzzfeed, an American Internet news media company, published "19 best father jokes from Rick Grimes" (by the way, the so-called "father" jokes themselves are a Western meme, a kind of combination of Russian "button accordions" and flat monotonous humor), after which images of a sad boy in wide-brimmed hat and his father, who accompanies every lecture with a reproachful "Karl!", became one of the most popular Western Internet memes of the time.
Where did it come from in Russia and where could it be heard
In 2015, the meme about Karl reached Russia, and the most often used option was that the boy asks his father for the latest iPhone model, without which life “sucks”, to which he receives the expected answer that in the old days there were no iPhones , there were no telephones at all, but everything suited everyone. This expression received another surge in popularity in connection with the scandal in the same 2015, when the fact that the inhabitants of Stavropol were fed pancakes from shovels on Maslenitsa was widely publicized. The Internet meme had two implementation options - “Karl got drunk” and “Father is trying to explain something to his son.” Only the end of the phrase remained standard - an emotional repetition of the last words with the obligatory "Karl", with an interrogative or exclamatory intonation.
Curious fact. On April 22, 2015, the leaders of the Russian opposition A. Navalny and L. Volkov were photographed next to the sign "Primaries, CARL", making it clear that they, as representatives of the Democratic coalition, intend to participate in the elections to the legislative assemblies of the Novosibirsk, Kostroma and Kaluga regions through public primaries - preliminary internal party elections.
Over time, the origin of the meme began to be forgotten, and now the exclamation "Karl!" in a Russian-speaking environment it is used in situations where someone has to “chew” everything, or simply to refer to a narrow-minded person. It is often written in Internet battles on forums, the phrase is said by everyone and sundry, but not everyone understands where it came from, why it is so popular and what it means.
Video from the movie "The Walking Dead" with this moment
At the end of "" we were shown one of the most shocking revelations in the history of the series: Carl was bitten by a zombie. However, what is most surprising here is when exactly he was bitten. Some The Walkers fans have speculated that the fatal bite happened when Carl selflessly tried to protect the people of Alexandria from Negan and his people. But showrunner Scott Gimple confirmed that the fatal bite happened before the events of the eighth series.
During a conversation on the talk show The Talking Dead, Gimple mentioned whether the bite meant certain death for Carl or not. The showrunner made it clear that the son Rick Grimes will not escape the fate that overtakes anyone bitten by a zombie (at least, we are talking about those who could not be saved by amputating a leg or arm). At the same time, Gimple also revealed that the bite itself did not occur in the last episode of the first half, but in fact Karl was bitten earlier. The showrunner even expressed surprise that fans didn't suspect anything sooner. But this, of course, is not entirely true - a couple of especially big-eyed fans put forward a theory a couple of weeks ago, which turned out to be true: Karl was bitten back in when he fought the walkers in the forest with his new friend, Siddiq.
And although that scene does not openly show the bite, the audience can see what happened before and what happened after - then this moment becomes obvious. It's just that the showrunners hid the importance of this scene from the fans (in order to bring us this painful revelation two episodes later).
You can watch the scene for yourself below (pay special attention to the frames between 1:26 and 1:41):
Carl and Siddiq are attacked by walkers in the forest. Carla gets bitten
In this scene, you see Carl being attacked by walkers. We are focused on the walker that is on top of Carl when the kid tries to fight him off (and, in the end, kills him with a headshot). At this time, next to Karl, you can see the second walker, descending and leaving the frame (on the right side of Karl). Moments later, the second walker reappears in the frame, after which Carl kills him.
As a result, it becomes obvious that that second walker was able to bite Carl on the side of the barrel while Grimes Jr. repulsed the attack of the first zombie.
And when we are shown the shocking bite in the season 8 episode 8 finale, the location of the mark is the same as what we were shown in episode 6 (the right side of Carl's abdomen).
This subtle and fleeting moment from episode 6 proved to be incredibly important. And given Carl's mortal wound, his conversation with Siddique (and later Negan) takes on a completely different color.
As for Chandler Riggs, the actor who has been playing Carl for nearly a decade now, rumors of his departure from The Walking Dead have been circulating for a year - ever since the young actor's seven-year contract came to an end. Riggs' mother even made an official statement saying that fans shouldn't care what his contract means or doesn't mean for the series. While Riggs has been criticized at times (due to the way his character has sometimes been portrayed), the last three or four years have seen Carl (and Riggs himself) stand shoulder to shoulder with veteran actors and adult characters.
Of course, the effect of a zombie bite can affect the victim for a long time, and until death takes him, Carl may still have a lot of time to help the people he loves. Gimple has made it clear that Rick's son is not finished yet, and that Carl has some unfinished business in the season 8 premiere that he needs to get done before he retires. It's unclear exactly what Carl will be doing when the show returns in February 2018, but it's good that Gimple and the writers of The Walking Dead have come up with a special ending for a character who has been one of the show's main characters from the start.
The next one airs in February 2018 on AMC.
If earlier we subtly quoted "winged expressions", now we happily use all kinds of memes. In fact, the difference is small, just the "catchword" was usually given in its original form, as indicated in the original source, and the meme itself is a complex product of the collective unconscious. Where did the expression “Karl!” Come from, which can now be easily heard on the street or in communication with friends and relatives? Welcome to the fascinating world of The Walking Dead.
Who is Karl?
Despite the popularity of the comic book, which was based on a popular series, this meme could not appear only on the basis of drawings. Here, the charisma of Andrew Lincoln played the role, embodied on the screen the image of Rick Grimes, the protagonist of the story. Carl is his son, and in the fourth episode of the third season, this heartbreaking scene plays out.
Rick learns that his wife died in childbirth - surrounded by the living dead, Lori, Maggie and Carl did not have the opportunity to call for help at least someone. The only thing that could be done was to remove the baby by caesarean section, and Laurie did not survive. Where did the expression "Karl!" come from, if it was not in the film? In the scene being described, Rick realizes that he has lost his wife, and he simply leans over to the shockedly silent son, repeating: “Oh no, no, no,” cries, begins to roll on the ground.
After the release of the series, the Internet was flooded with separately cut pieces of video that were supposed to be used as memes with a tragic denial of anything. But this trend did not take root, although it became the ancestor of a popular phenomenon. Soon a video was released in which Rick allegedly finds out that his son is gay, and speaks very emotionally about this, exclaiming at the end: “Karl!” A start was made.
Origin of the meme
The English-speaking Internet was already seething, excelling in wit, but calm still reigned in Runet, despite attempts by fans of the series to adapt jokes to Russian by direct translation. It lacked some kind of powerful push.
The mechanisms of memetics are quite complex, and it is impossible to predict in advance which expression or picture will become a meme. Sometimes attempts are made to create artificial popularity, but this requires a lot of effort in the complete absence of the meaning of these actions. In RuNet, the impetus was a scandalous report from Stavropol - in March 2015, the Internet community learned about feeding the townspeople with pancakes for Maslenitsa, and the treat was served on shovels. Where did the expression "Karl!" in runet? The meme gained a powerful impetus to popularity precisely in the context of “we ate pancakes from a shovel, Carl!” - and the network was flooded with all sorts of options for captions under the storyboard from the series.
The cycle of popularity
At its peak, the meme lasted long enough, successful signatures still appear, which are reposted on social networks, becoming widespread, but the intensity is gradually fading. The peculiarities of all memes based on long-running series are the cyclical interest - a new season comes out, fans begin to give out creativity, discussions still rage for some time after the season, and the fandom falls into hibernation until the next season. After it became clear where the expression “Karl!” came from, you involuntarily want to ask yourself: “Why is it so widely used so far?”.
The meaning of the meme
If you try to translate the phrase into ordinary language, not “corrupted” by all kinds of creations of the Internet, it turns out that the essence of the expression is to expressively emphasize one’s own indignation or other strong emotions. The closest in meaning is the exclamation: “Just imagine!”. But often situations arise when each of us is a little Rick Grimes, and we want to emphasize the degree of our excited state.
Distribution and appropriateness of use
First of all, this is a slightly humorous, non-aggressive message that can be used to decorate the narrative in an original way, a story about some events. Involvement of emotional markers helps to make the verbal construction easier, perceived at a subconscious level. For example, when "Karl" appeared on various advertising posters, it served as a kind of viral marketing tool - photos of such creative signs instantly hit the Internet and were reposted throughout the network.
The transition of a meme from the Internet to everyday verbal communication is a fairly new phenomenon, but already familiar. What does "Karl" mean? at the end of a sentence? An expressive accent emphasizes a certain thought that is put at the beginning of the message, attracts attention.
Of course, this meme should not be used in business correspondence or official communication, however, as a joke, it is acceptable even in some public statements. Better than crude jargon, slang or veiled insults, the exclamation serves the same function - it conveys expression.
