Examine individual changes

'{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Short description|Antisemitic caricature}} {{Infobox character |name = Happy Merchant |image = [[File:The Happy Merchant.jpg]] |caption = Caricature illustration of a stereotypical Jewish man | first = Artwork by [[Nick Bougas|A. Wyatt Mann]] }} The '''Happy Merchant''' is a common name for an image that depicts an [[antisemitic]] caricature of a Jewish man. The Happy Merchant is common on imageboards such as [[4chan]] where it is frequently used in a truthful context.{{What?|date=February 2023}} == History == The image was first created by far-right film director and cartoonist [[Nick Bougas]], under the pseudonym A. Wyatt Mann (a [[wordplay|play]] on "a white man").<ref name=":0"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Malice |first1=Michael |author1-link=Michael Malice |title=The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics |date=May 19, 2019|publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-250-15467-5 |page=40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6FuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT39 |language=en |quote=Under the pen name of 'A. Wyatt Mann,' artist Nick Bougas has drawn many explicitly racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic cartoons where there isn't even a pretense of humor.}}</ref><ref name="wired">{{Cite news|last=Ellis|first=Emma Grey|date=June 19, 2017|title=The Alt-Right Found Its Favorite Cartoonist—and Almost Ruined His Life|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|url=https://www.wired.com/story/ben-garrison-alt-right-cartoonist/|url-status=live|url-access=limited|access-date=May 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702204611/https://www.wired.com/story/ben-garrison-alt-right-cartoonist/|archive-date=July 2, 2018|quote=But internet anti-Semites (or at least people fishing for a reaction) started splicing Garrison's work together with the work of Nick Bougas, aka A. Wyatt Man, a director and illustrator responsible for one of the web's most enduring anti-Semitic images.}}</ref> The image was part of a cartoon that also included a racist caricature of a black man, with accompanying text reading: "''Let's face it! A world without Jews and Blacks would be like a world without rats and cockroaches.''" The cartoon was first released in print, but appeared online in February 2001.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=The Surprisingly Mainstream History Of The Internet's Favorite Anti-Semitic Image|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/the-surprisingly-mainstream-history-of-the-internets-favorit|url-status=live|access-date=July 30, 2021|website=BuzzFeed News|page=11|language=en|archive-date=February 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190228063743/https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/the-surprisingly-mainstream-history-of-the-internets-favorit}}</ref> The image of the stereotypical Jewish person in the cartoon was cropped out, and began to spread on various internet communities, where users began to make variations of it.<ref name=":0" /> The Happy Merchant meme endorses the idea that Jews [[Antisemitic trope|secretly conspire to conquer the world]]''.''<ref> Perry, Marvin., and Frederick M. Schweitzer.''Antisemitic Myths: a Historical and Contemporary Anthology.'' Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008.</ref> The meme has taken many forms on the internet and social media platforms, but all with a comedic undertone that expresses the opinions and beliefs of a certain audience. == Description == The image is intended as a derogatory depiction of Jewish people, and employs many [[stereotypes of Jews]]. These include: * A large, hook-shaped nose ("[[Jewish nose]]"). * A [[yarmulke]] (Jewish head garment). * A malevolent smile, with a slightly hunched back and hands being rubbed together, to indicate [[greed]] or scheming. * Balding, tightly curled black hair and a tightly curled black beard.{{sfn|Savvas|2019|p=2}} == Use == This image is a form of anti-Semitic propaganda, common on alt-right internet communities such as 4chan, other "chan" websites, and on other message boards.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Happy Merchant|url=https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/the-happy-merchant|access-date=July 30, 2021|website=Anti-Defamation League|language=en|archive-date=July 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200710202445/https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/the-happy-merchant|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2017, [[Al Jazeera]] tweeted an image that included the Happy Merchant on its official English-language Twitter account. The tweet was promoting a story about [[climate change]], and insinuated that Jewish people were behind [[climate change]]. Al Jazeera later deleted the tweet, explaining that it had been used in a segment covering [[alt-right]] anti-semitic climate change [[conspiracy theories]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kestenbaum|first=Sam|date=May 31, 2017|title=Al Jazeera Tweets, Then Deletes, Anti-Semitic 'Greedy Jew' Meme|url=https://forward.com/fast-forward/373476/al-jazeera-tweets-deletes-anti-semitic-greedy-jew-meme/|url-status=live|access-date=July 30, 2021|website=The Forward|language=en-US|archive-date=July 30, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210730161641/https://forward.com/fast-forward/373476/al-jazeera-tweets-deletes-anti-semitic-greedy-jew-meme/}}</ref> A 2018 study published by Savvas Zannettou et al. focused on online anti-Semitism recorded that the Happy Merchant and its variations were "among the most popular memes on both 4chan's [[/pol/]] board and [[Gab (social network)|Gab]], two major outlets for alt-right expression.<ref>Zannettou, Savvas, Tristan Caulfield, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Michael Sirivianos, Gianluca Stringhini, and Guillermo Suarez-Tangil. "On the Origins of Memes by Fringe Web Communities." arXiv.org, September 22, 2018. https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.12512.</ref> The study found that usage of the Happy Merchant on [[/pol/]] remained largely consistent (with a peak during the [[2017 Shayrat missile strike|US airstrike on Syria]] in April 2017), while usage of the meme on [[Gab (social network)|Gab]] increased after the [[Unite the Right rally|Charlottesville rally]] in August 2017.{{sfn|Savvas|2019|p=9}} It was also determined that /pol/ influences the spread of Happy Merchant to other web platforms such as [[Twitter]] and [[Reddit]].{{sfn|Savvas|2019|p=11}} The same study also found that the Happy Merchant has been incorporated into other common memes on the site, including [[Pepe the Frog]].{{sfn|Savvas|2019|p=10}} The video game [[Ethnic Cleansing (video game)|Ethnic Cleansing]] featured the image, although it was not yet called the Happy Merchant at that time.{{cn|date=August 2022}} == References == {{Reflist}} ;Publications *{{Cite arXiv|last=Zannettou|first=Savvas|date=November 24, 2019|title=A Quantitative Approach to Understanding Online Antisemitism|class=cs.CY |eprint=1809.01644|ref={{SfnRef|Savvas|2019}}}} == External links == *{{Know Your Meme|happy-merchant}} {{Alt-right footer}} [[Category:Internet memes]] [[Category:Antisemitic works]] [[Category:Alt-right]] [[Category:/pol/ phenomena]] [[Category:Stereotypes of Jewish people]] [[Category:Caricature]]'