Happy Merchant

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About

Happy Merchant is a cartoon portraying a male Jew based on anti-Semitic views, giving it characterizations such as greed, manipulative, and the need for world domination. Mainly posted on political imageboards such as 4chan’s /pol/ and 4chon’s /new/, it is used both ironically and seriously.

Origin

The original artist who drew the character that would later become the Happy Merchant was drawn by an artist going by the pseudonym A. Wyatt Mann,^[1] in a racist and anti-Semitic piece promoting a world without Jews and blacks (shown below). The cut-out character was first posted on the 4chan board of /new/, prior to its dismantling for its rampant racist sentiment and political incorrectness.

Spread

Common themes found in Happy Merchant comics are mostly based on anti-Semitic ideas such as: a Jewish conspiracy to control the world; greedy Jews, or blaming corporate greed on Jews; fabricating the Holocaust; and blaming the Jewish conspiracy for promoting feminism, homosexuality, “racemixing”, or causing any current calamity. Though long used as a reaction image, it’s unknown when it first gained the title “Le Happy Merchant”, a mocking reference to Reddit users’ ubiquitous usage of “le” as a prefix in rage comics; the earliest example found so far is in a May 2012 /vg/ thread on 4chan.^[6] Posts accompanying the reaction image often take the form of sardonically roleplaying a Jew who gleefully and transparently manipulates the “good goyim” who are duped by his deceptions and as a consequence buy his overpriced products or hold politically liberal views.

Spinoffs derived from the meme on some antisemitic forums around the web^[3] when they reached new boards on 4chan,^[2] particularly on /v/, /r9k/ and /b/. Ylilauta’s /int/ also managed to blend spurdo spärde with the merchant, and produced a somewhat less controversial friendly partnership between “Le American Bear,” a character based on spurdo spärde representing a stereotypical American, and Le Happy Merchant. A page on the satirical website Encyclopedia Dramatica was also submitted.^[7]