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About

Sminem is character based on photograph of Russian teenager Roman Zuev wearing a knockoff shirt with the rapper Eminem on it, with "Eminem" misspelled "Sminem." After being shared on Russian internet and Reddit, the boy became a meme on 4chan boards /int/ and /biz/. In Russia, Sminem is also known as Elf.

Origin

The earliest known post to feature the boy was posted May 18th, 2014 to Russian forum pikabu.ru.[1] There, the picture gained 15 upvotes.

SMINE SMINEM pikaburu

Spread

The picture was reposted to Reddit the following year on /r/ANormalDayInRussia[2] on July 6th, 2015, where it gained 971 upvotes. On December 2nd, 2016, it was posted to /r/funny[3] where it gained 31 upvotes. On May 1st, 2017, the image was submitted to Shitpostbot 5000. [4]

Around October of 2016, the picture began circulating on 4chan boards, where the character became a larger meme. Some early threads featuring the picture were posted on October 18th[5] and October 19th[6] of that year. The following year, more images of the boy were posted to the board (examples shown below).

P29-12

In Cryptocurrency Community

In February 2018, Sminem grew into an unofficial mascot for 4chan's /biz/ board, where users joked about him as though he were emblematic of a person who succeeded in the cryptocurrency market. An exchange a Twitter user by the name of @CryptoSminem had with older Twitter user @PeterLBrandt was posted several times to the board,[7] furthering the lore that Sminem was a pioneer in cryptocurrency (shown below).

Peter Brandt @PeterLBrandt My observation about the new generation of traders:I sense an urgent need to make massive profits quickly Successful market speculation is a marathon, not a sprint. But, have it your way 07/02/2018, 15:00 150 Retweets 780 Likes Sminem @CryptoSminem 1h Replying to @PeterLBrandt Your way is the way of the dinosaur. The asteroids are coming and he sees them 9 Peter Brandt @PeterLBrandt 1h No respect -- blocked 61 ADEEL Amin @Adeelkamin 1h f. Replying to @PeterLBrandt Ithink you continuously post about noobs. Most thrivers are long term traders Peter Brandt @PeterLBrandt.57m My generation took proper English in school. I have no idea what a noob is 8 Tweet your reply

In memes, Sminem often opposes the Bogdanoff twins, serving as a symbol of gains and bullish market as opposed to the Bogdanoffs symbolizing losses, bearish markets and market manipulation. The trend found reflection in popular meme videos by YouTuber[9][10] Bizonacci posted in early 2018 (examples shown below, left and right).


On February 7th, 2018, an anonymous user in /int/ opened a thread for photoshops of the character, to which several users posted their edits of the image as well as other pictures of the boy.[8]

Sminem NFT

On April 18th, 2022, Roman Zuev, the man depicted in the Sminem meme, announced on his Twitter[13] account that he was auctioning off an NFT collection surrounding the meme and various images associated with Sminem via Foundation,[14] a crypto art marketplace.

Identity

In 2019, following the surge of popularity of Sminem on /biz/ and his popularity in Russia as Elf meme, Sminem's real name was discovered to be Roman Zuev, a Russian native born in 1996 and living in Krasnodar Krai.[11][12] In 2020, an unknown person, likely an acquaintance of Zuev, created Instagram and TikTok pages for "Romario Zuev," posting videos of Sminem. While the accounts were subsequently shut down, a number of videos of Zuev were archived by YouTube user Ivan Uchaschiisya (shown below, left and right).

Hello, my friends, my name is Romario Zuev. I am 23 years old. I was born in Volgograd, Dzershinsk District. I finished 10 [out of 11] grades and later moved to Krasnodar Krai, Vladimirskiy District. The weather is good here, the people are good. I'm helping my mother every day. Subscribe to my Instagram and leave a like. See you, friendos!

Various Examples

SME SMINEM
NEM

Search Interest

External References



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