My Name Is Jafar, I Come From Afar

About

My Name Is Jafar, I Come From Afar, or My Name Is Jamar, I Come From Afar, I Have A Bomb In My Car, Allahu Akbar is an offensive rhyming joke told from the perspective of a Middle-Eastern terrorist, with Allahu Akbar being a phrase typically yelled by terrorists before a suicide bombing. The earliest instance of the joke online appears to be a post to Twitter in January 2016, although the exact origins are unknown. In 2021 an audio clip of someone reading the joke became a popular exploitable as users attached it to video game footage of planes suicide bombing other players.

Origin

The exact origin of the joke is unknown but started to become popular online in 2016. On January 6th, 2016, Twitter^[1] user flashinhooo posted, "My name is Jafar, I come from afar, I work at the bazaar, Allahu Akbar," but gained zero likes or retweets, suggesting this is not the original. On February 2nd of that year, an anonymous 4chan user posted to the /pol/^[2] board "Guys my friend created Allahu akbar song! What do you think about it?" followed by a chorus consisting of "MY NAME IS JAFAR I COME FROM AFAR I HAVE A BOMB IN MY CAR ALLAHU AKBAR (x2)" In 2017, numerous image macros using the phrase over images of Jafar from Aladdin were posted to sites including Meme Center,^[3] imgflip^[4] and Know Your Meme^[5] (examples shown below).

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My Name Is Jamar

On June 20th, 2021, YouTuber , posted a video from the aerial combat game War Thunder showing the player's plane flying through the sky as a voice says, "my name is Jamar, I come from afar." An audio clip of a terrorist-like cry of "Allahu Akbar" is then heard as a plane kamikazes into his, destroying them both (shown below). The video gained over 3.2 million views in seven months.

On September 3rd, TikToker @aaronfahey10 posted a video of a soccer player scoring a goal by throwing himself at the ball head-first using the audio, gaining over 9 million views in four months (shown below).

The War Thunder video inspired others to set War Thunder and other gameplay footage featuring planes being destroyed, typically through kamikaze strikes, to the audio. For example, on September 26th, YouTuber dkart96 posted a War Thunder video using the audio clip over a similar instance, gaining over 61,700 views in four months (shown below, left). On September 29th, YouTuber Goldteiger2000 posted a compilation of the videos, gaining over 65,000 views in the same rough span of time (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References