About
Doom Paul is an image macro and animated GIF series featuring American physician Ron Paul. Originally used to jokingly depict what could happen if Ron Paul was not elected for President during the 2012 elections, the images eventually grew to be used alongside incoming events to jokingly indicate that their arrival will have apocalyptic results. A common catchphrase used in combination with Doom Paul image macros is “It’s Happening!”
Origin
In 2009, a user on 4chan’s /new/ (news) board posted the first doom paul image after he lost the 2008 republican nomination with the quote “All is lost” and “I told you so.” The user said the Apocalypse was coming and that these were the last days. 4chan soon removed the /new/ board after the founder, Moot, got sick of the racism on the board. The meme vanished for awhile but was soon mirrored on 4chon.net and it’s backup /new/ board. Many of the images were created there and remained. Until the founder, Moot, felt bad and recreated the /new/ board, this time dubbing it /pol/ (Politically incorrect). Soon the images were posted again on the newly created /pol/.
Spread
Multiple Facebook pages were created[1][2] to compile and share any images that other users created. The image was first meant to be used for Trolling, but Doom Paul supporters quickly started using and creating images for other purposes and to be used as a reply for incoming events to jokingly indicate that their arrival will have apocalyptic results. Doom Paul was also given its own header on Encyclopedia Dramatica’s page for /pol/,[3] which is also called Doom Paul in its URL. Doom Paul was also given a definition on Urban Dictionary in February 2012.[4] Additional examples can also be found on Tumblr under the “Doom Paul” tag,[5] and on the “Paul Memes” sub-Reddit.[6]
Various Examples
