Are Ya Winning, Son? Explained: Origin and Spread

Are Ya Winning, Son?

Are Ya Winning, Son? is an exploitable image series based on an MS Paint webcomic in which a father walks in on his son playing a hentai virtual reality game and asks ‘are ya winning, son?’

Origin

While the exact origin of the comic is unknown, it may have originated from 4chan due to the use of the name ‘Anon-kun,’ a reference to the site’s anonymous users. On January 11th, 2014, the comic was submitted to an Oculus Rift thread on the RPG Codex Forums.

Spread

On March 21st, 2014, FunnyJunk user Aejax submitted the comic in the comic section of a post with the caption ‘This is the future you chose.’ On January 29th, 2015, MemeCenter user bakoahmed submitted an animated GIF of various people viewing virtual reality pornography for the first time placed above the ‘Are Ya Winning Son?’ comic. Within two years, the post gained over 1,600 likes and 80 comments.

On August 15th, Redditor SheZowRaisedByWolves posted the comic to the /r/justneckbeardthings subreddit, where it garnered upwards of 950 votes (96% upvoted) and 60 comments prior to being archived. On September 19th, Tumblr user eva-420 reblogged a variation in which the son appears to have merged with his machine. While the original post was subsequently removed, reblogs indicate it obtained more than 2,600 notes over the next six months.

On September 22nd, 2015, FunnyJunk user magmamax posted a series of comics depicting a story in which the father discovers that his son committed suicide.

2020 Resurgence

In May of 2020, the template began seeing a resurgence, with a particular spike in wholesome and anti-meme variations. On May 2nd, Reddit user i9980XE posted a wholesome variation that gained over 1,400 points. On May 17th, Twitter user @helen posted an edit which gained over 7,000 retweets and 68,000 likes.

FAQs

1. What does ‘Are Ya Winning, Son?’ mean?

For context, it’s that meme that has this dude walking into his son doing various things in his bedroom, his reaction almost always being the same ‘are ya winning, son?’ with a placid smile.

2. What is the Meme Generator?

It’s a free online image maker that lets you add custom resizable text, images, and much more to templates. People often use the generator to customize established memes, such as those found in Imgflip’s collection of Meme Templates.

3. How can I customize my meme?

You can move and resize the text boxes by dragging them around. If you’re on a mobile device, you may have to first check ‘enable drag/drop’ in the More Options section. You can add as many additional text boxes as you want with the Add Text button.

4. Can I make animated or video memes?

Yes! Animated meme templates will show up when you search in the Meme Generator above (try ‘party parrot’). If you don’t find the meme you want, browse all the GIF Templates or upload and save your own animated template using the GIF Maker.