Guy with a Bronze Medal

What is drawn

This is a flat color illustration with no background details. In the center is a bald man with a short beard, his head thrown back and his mouth wide open, with strokes around his face indicating a shout. Both arms are raised, and on each one a middle finger is displayed. He wears a light blue sports jacket with white stripes on the sleeves, and a medal on a brown-red ribbon hangs on his chest. Behind him is a dark blue-green silhouette of a crowd of spectators.

The emotion here is not an athlete's joy but a defiant, provocative triumph. This is what sets the template apart from ordinary pictures of winners: the hero does not share his happiness, he throws down a challenge.

Author and the first steps of the meme

The drawing is attributed to a Moscow illustrator who signs his work 3Palec. According to information gathered by online publications, he posted the comic on February 7, 2020. The idea, in the author's words, was simple: a person celebrates on the podium, sprays everyone with champagne, and makes rude gestures.

The template appeared on Reddit in February 2020 and at first circulated through small communities. It gained wide popularity closer to the end of March, and in Russian-language social networks, on VKontakte and Twitter, it noticeably spread from April. Later people started captioning it with reactions to inflated pop culture phenomena, for example with the phrase 'I'm not the author, but I'm glad': such a caption fits the picture well, since the joy is directed at someone else's achievement.

What the joke is

The name 'guy with a bronze medal' matters: bronze means third place, where one can be glad, but shouting across the whole hall and raising fists like a winner is strange. The comedy comes from the gap between a modest result and the loudness of the celebration.

In addition, the meme most often mocks those who claim other people's achievements. The team won, but one of the fans behaves as if he had won himself. In this sense the hero is not a hero but a self-appointed winner.

The medal in the drawing is yellow, but the meaning of the joke is set not by the color but by the 'third place' itself.

The meme in real life

In the summer of 2021, during the Tokyo Olympics, Brazilian swimmer Bruno Fratus won bronze in the 50-meter freestyle. His wild celebration, with shouts and showing the medal to the TV cameras, was compared to the meme, and Russian-language sports outlets wrote about this coincidence. The athlete himself, as the media reported, had been working toward this award for many years, and at the 2012 Games he had been left without a medal, missing it by a few hundredths of a second, so his emotions were explained by personal history rather than arrogance.

Caption examples

'My friend, when his favorite band was praised in a review, even though he has never once been to a concert.' The hero celebrates someone else's success.

'Me, when our team at the office closed the project and all I did was agree on the date.' The achievement belongs to someone else, but the joy is mine: classic template logic.

'My neighbor, when his national team won bronze and he watched the match from the kitchen.' It shows how close the picture sits to real life.

'A reader who read one post and passed a verdict on an entire genre.' The meme overlays a dismissive criticism.

Tips for use

The caption should set up a situation in which the joy is excessive or unearned. It is better to joke about a type than about a specific person.

Keep in mind that the gestures in the picture are offensive: the template is a poor fit for children's or work posts. If you need a softer version, it is better to choose a different picture about victory.