Obunga

2013Cursed image / photoshopsemi-active

Also known as: Juhrack Johbama

Obunga is a 2013 cursed photoshop warping Barack Obama into a roach-like creature from the manga Terra Formars, popularized by PewDiePie in 2018.

Obunga is a photoshopped "cursed image" of former U.S. President Barack Obama, warped to resemble the roach-like creatures from the Japanese manga *Terra Formars*. The image first surfaced on 4chan's /tv/ board in mid-2013, spent years in relative obscurity, then exploded across Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit in June 2018 after PewDiePie featured it in a video. A second wave of popularity hit in summer 2022 when Obunga became a popular Nextbot chase mod in Garry's Mod.

TL;DR

Obunga is a photoshopped "cursed image" of former U.S.

Overview

Obunga is a heavily distorted edit of Barack Obama's official presidential portrait, manipulated so his face takes on the grotesque, bug-eyed appearance of the humanoid cockroach antagonists from Yuu Sasuga's manga *Terra Formars*1. The result is an unsettling, almost alien-looking face that sits squarely in cursed image territory. The image is frequently paired with audio from the horror game *Five Nights at Freddy's*, turning it into a screamer-style video format2. Part of what made Obunga stick was its sheer visual discomfort. It doesn't look like a typical political caricature or joke edit. It looks wrong in a way that's hard to shake, which gave it staying power in cursed image threads and horror meme compilations.

The earliest known instance of the Obunga photoshop was posted to 4chan's /tv/ (television and film) board on July 24, 20134. The original thread context and the identity of whoever created the edit are both unknown. No one has claimed authorship, and the anonymous posting culture of 4chan means tracking it down is likely impossible2. The image sat relatively dormant for nearly three years after that initial post.

On March 29, 2016, the photoshopped face reappeared on 4chan's /v/ (video games) board, this time uploaded under the filename "Juhrack Johbama.jpg"1. This crossover from /tv/ to /v/ marked the beginning of Obunga's slow migration across platforms, though it would take another two years before the meme truly broke out.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan (/tv/ board)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2013
Year
2013

The earliest known instance of the Obunga photoshop was posted to 4chan's /tv/ (television and film) board on July 24, 2013. The original thread context and the identity of whoever created the edit are both unknown. No one has claimed authorship, and the anonymous posting culture of 4chan means tracking it down is likely impossible. The image sat relatively dormant for nearly three years after that initial post.

On March 29, 2016, the photoshopped face reappeared on 4chan's /v/ (video games) board, this time uploaded under the filename "Juhrack Johbama.jpg". This crossover from /tv/ to /v/ marked the beginning of Obunga's slow migration across platforms, though it would take another two years before the meme truly broke out.

How It Spread

The YouTube era of Obunga kicked off on February 14, 2018, when a user named Homosneksual uploaded a short clip titled "Obunga.mov" featuring the image set to the "new round" sound effect from *Call of Duty: World at War*. The marriage of creepy image and horror audio was a natural fit, and on June 11, 2018, YouTuber Maguku uploaded what became the defining version: Obunga paired with the iconic *Five Nights at Freddy's* music.

June 2018 was the month Obunga went everywhere. Multiple Instagram accounts started posting Obunga screamer videos, building an audience of viewers who loved being jump-scared. On June 15, Instagram user @bepis.man posted a *FNAF*-scored Obunga clip that pulled in over 31,000 views and 3,200 likes. Six days later, @bepis.man followed up with another post that hit 44,000 views and nearly 5,000 likes.

The real tipping point came on June 27, 2018, when PewDiePie uploaded a video titled "OBUNGA ELAS THICC GIRL." The video pulled 2.7 million views and 35,200 comments within its first 24 hours. As the most subscribed individual creator on YouTube at the time, PewDiePie's coverage pushed Obunga into mainstream meme awareness. As one analysis noted, PewDiePie's "meme review" videos tend to mark both the peak and the beginning of the end for a meme's lifecycle.

The very next day, June 28, Reddit user CharlotteNetherlands posted a captioned Obunga variation to r/okbuddyretard, where it earned over 1,000 upvotes with a 91% approval rate and 60 comments in 15 hours. Around the same time, user TheMemeKid submitted an edit that blended Obunga with Sans from *Undertale* to r/dankmemes.

How to Use This Meme

Obunga typically appears in two main formats. The first is the screamer video: a seemingly normal or calm video that suddenly cuts to the Obunga face, often accompanied by *Five Nights at Freddy's* audio or similar horror sound effects. The key is the bait-and-switch. Viewers don't expect it, and the jarring face gets the reaction.

The second format is the captioned image, where the distorted Obama face is placed in reaction image contexts, usually implying something unsettling, threatening, or absurd. Common setups include "Obunga is watching you" or placing the face in unexpected settings (behind a door, in a dark hallway, outside a window).

In the Garry's Mod Nextbot context, Obunga is used as a chase NPC. Players download the mod from Steam Workshop and play chase game modes where the Obunga image sprints at them at high speed while they try to escape.

Cultural Impact

PewDiePie's June 2018 video was the single biggest amplifier for Obunga, pushing it from a niche 4chan relic into a meme recognized across YouTube, Instagram, and Reddit within days. The meme's second wave in 2022, driven by Garry's Mod and TikTok content, showed that horror-style chase game content could revive even dormant memes.

The Roblox removal in September 2022 was notable as one of the higher-profile instances of a major platform removing meme content specifically for discrimination concerns. The decision drew attention to the tension between memes that have "outgrown" their original context and the original context itself.

Urban Dictionary entries for Obunga range from straightforward definitions to semi-ironic deification, with users calling it "God himself making an appearance back on earth".

Full History

What makes Obunga unusual among political photoshop memes is its complete detachment from politics. Nobody uses it to make a point about Obama's policies or legacy. Instead, it functions purely as a horror image, closer to a creepypasta character than a political cartoon.

The meme's first life (2013-2016) was quiet. That original /tv/ thread in July 2013 came with the tongue-in-cheek context of discussing Obama's favorite TV show, *The Wire*. The edit was jarring enough to save and repost, but 4chan threads are ephemeral by design, and Obunga didn't immediately catch fire beyond the board. Its reappearance on /v/ in 2016 with the "Juhrack Johbama" filename showed the image had survived in someone's saved folder for three years, passed around in the background of chan culture without any mainstream visibility.

The 2018 breakout was rapid and multi-platform. After the YouTube and Instagram explosion in June, the meme developed two distinct tracks. On one side were the screamer and horror edits, where Obunga would suddenly appear in otherwise normal-looking videos, usually scored to *Five Nights at Freddy's* music. On the other side were ironic and absurdist meme formats, particularly on subreddits like r/okbuddyretard and r/dankmemes, where the image got captioned and remixed into new contexts.

The Garry's Mod chapter brought Obunga back from the dead four years later. On July 2, 2018, right at the height of Obunga-mania, Steam Workshop user The Globfather had submitted an Obunga NPC mod for the Nextbot Chase game mode in Garry's Mod. Nextbot Chase is a horror-style mode where players are chased by AI-controlled characters that sprint at them with static images as faces. Obunga's unsettling visage was a perfect fit for the format, but the mod sat on the Workshop for years before finding its audience.

That changed in summer 2022. On July 6, YouTuber Whitt posted a gameplay video featuring the Obunga Nextbot that hit 2.6 million views in three weeks. On July 20, GirthQuake uploaded "Obunga is actually horrifying," which grabbed 263,000 views in a single week. TikTok creators picked up on the trend as well, flooding the platform with clips of players screaming as the Obunga face sprinted toward them.

The Roblox saga added a controversy layer. On August 4, 2022, Obunga appeared as a playable element in Roblox. But it didn't last. On September 19, 2022, Roblox moderation removed all Obunga content from the platform, citing it as "discriminatory content". The removal sparked debate among users about whether the image was inherently racist (a digitally distorted photo of the first Black president) or whether it had evolved beyond any racial reading into a pure horror meme. The Daily Dot noted that the racial implications were a recurring point of tension throughout the meme's history, with many observers pointing out that the combination of 4chan origins and a distorted image of a Black public figure was "racist as hell" regardless of how its users interpreted it.

Fun Facts

The filename "Juhrack Johbama.jpg" from the 2016 /v/ repost is a phonetic mangling of "Barack Obama" and has been preserved in 4chan archives.

Obunga's 2022 Garry's Mod revival came from a Steam Workshop mod that had been sitting dormant since July 2018, uploaded during the meme's original peak.

PewDiePie's Obunga video hit 2.7 million views and 35,200 comments in a single day, making it one of the faster-spreading meme review moments on his channel.

The meme is one of a handful to be explicitly banned from Roblox under "discriminatory content" moderation rules.

Derivatives & Variations

Sans Obunga

A mashup blending the Obunga face with Sans from *Undertale*, posted to r/dankmemes in June 2018[4].

Obunga Nextbot

A Garry's Mod NPC chase mod submitted to Steam Workshop by The Globfather on July 2, 2018, which drove the 2022 revival[5].

Obunga screamer videos

A whole genre of bait-and-switch videos on Instagram and YouTube pairing the image with *Five Nights at Freddy's* audio[1].

Roblox Obunga

A short-lived Roblox implementation that was removed by platform moderation in September 2022 for being "discriminatory content"[2].

Frequently Asked Questions

Obunga

2013Cursed image / photoshopsemi-active

Also known as: Juhrack Johbama

Obunga is a 2013 cursed photoshop warping Barack Obama into a roach-like creature from the manga Terra Formars, popularized by PewDiePie in 2018.

Obunga is a photoshopped "cursed image" of former U.S. President Barack Obama, warped to resemble the roach-like creatures from the Japanese manga *Terra Formars*. The image first surfaced on 4chan's /tv/ board in mid-2013, spent years in relative obscurity, then exploded across Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit in June 2018 after PewDiePie featured it in a video. A second wave of popularity hit in summer 2022 when Obunga became a popular Nextbot chase mod in Garry's Mod.

TL;DR

Obunga is a photoshopped "cursed image" of former U.S.

Overview

Obunga is a heavily distorted edit of Barack Obama's official presidential portrait, manipulated so his face takes on the grotesque, bug-eyed appearance of the humanoid cockroach antagonists from Yuu Sasuga's manga *Terra Formars*. The result is an unsettling, almost alien-looking face that sits squarely in cursed image territory. The image is frequently paired with audio from the horror game *Five Nights at Freddy's*, turning it into a screamer-style video format. Part of what made Obunga stick was its sheer visual discomfort. It doesn't look like a typical political caricature or joke edit. It looks wrong in a way that's hard to shake, which gave it staying power in cursed image threads and horror meme compilations.

The earliest known instance of the Obunga photoshop was posted to 4chan's /tv/ (television and film) board on July 24, 2013. The original thread context and the identity of whoever created the edit are both unknown. No one has claimed authorship, and the anonymous posting culture of 4chan means tracking it down is likely impossible. The image sat relatively dormant for nearly three years after that initial post.

On March 29, 2016, the photoshopped face reappeared on 4chan's /v/ (video games) board, this time uploaded under the filename "Juhrack Johbama.jpg". This crossover from /tv/ to /v/ marked the beginning of Obunga's slow migration across platforms, though it would take another two years before the meme truly broke out.

Origin & Background

Platform
4chan (/tv/ board)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2013
Year
2013

The earliest known instance of the Obunga photoshop was posted to 4chan's /tv/ (television and film) board on July 24, 2013. The original thread context and the identity of whoever created the edit are both unknown. No one has claimed authorship, and the anonymous posting culture of 4chan means tracking it down is likely impossible. The image sat relatively dormant for nearly three years after that initial post.

On March 29, 2016, the photoshopped face reappeared on 4chan's /v/ (video games) board, this time uploaded under the filename "Juhrack Johbama.jpg". This crossover from /tv/ to /v/ marked the beginning of Obunga's slow migration across platforms, though it would take another two years before the meme truly broke out.

How It Spread

The YouTube era of Obunga kicked off on February 14, 2018, when a user named Homosneksual uploaded a short clip titled "Obunga.mov" featuring the image set to the "new round" sound effect from *Call of Duty: World at War*. The marriage of creepy image and horror audio was a natural fit, and on June 11, 2018, YouTuber Maguku uploaded what became the defining version: Obunga paired with the iconic *Five Nights at Freddy's* music.

June 2018 was the month Obunga went everywhere. Multiple Instagram accounts started posting Obunga screamer videos, building an audience of viewers who loved being jump-scared. On June 15, Instagram user @bepis.man posted a *FNAF*-scored Obunga clip that pulled in over 31,000 views and 3,200 likes. Six days later, @bepis.man followed up with another post that hit 44,000 views and nearly 5,000 likes.

The real tipping point came on June 27, 2018, when PewDiePie uploaded a video titled "OBUNGA ELAS THICC GIRL." The video pulled 2.7 million views and 35,200 comments within its first 24 hours. As the most subscribed individual creator on YouTube at the time, PewDiePie's coverage pushed Obunga into mainstream meme awareness. As one analysis noted, PewDiePie's "meme review" videos tend to mark both the peak and the beginning of the end for a meme's lifecycle.

The very next day, June 28, Reddit user CharlotteNetherlands posted a captioned Obunga variation to r/okbuddyretard, where it earned over 1,000 upvotes with a 91% approval rate and 60 comments in 15 hours. Around the same time, user TheMemeKid submitted an edit that blended Obunga with Sans from *Undertale* to r/dankmemes.

How to Use This Meme

Obunga typically appears in two main formats. The first is the screamer video: a seemingly normal or calm video that suddenly cuts to the Obunga face, often accompanied by *Five Nights at Freddy's* audio or similar horror sound effects. The key is the bait-and-switch. Viewers don't expect it, and the jarring face gets the reaction.

The second format is the captioned image, where the distorted Obama face is placed in reaction image contexts, usually implying something unsettling, threatening, or absurd. Common setups include "Obunga is watching you" or placing the face in unexpected settings (behind a door, in a dark hallway, outside a window).

In the Garry's Mod Nextbot context, Obunga is used as a chase NPC. Players download the mod from Steam Workshop and play chase game modes where the Obunga image sprints at them at high speed while they try to escape.

Cultural Impact

PewDiePie's June 2018 video was the single biggest amplifier for Obunga, pushing it from a niche 4chan relic into a meme recognized across YouTube, Instagram, and Reddit within days. The meme's second wave in 2022, driven by Garry's Mod and TikTok content, showed that horror-style chase game content could revive even dormant memes.

The Roblox removal in September 2022 was notable as one of the higher-profile instances of a major platform removing meme content specifically for discrimination concerns. The decision drew attention to the tension between memes that have "outgrown" their original context and the original context itself.

Urban Dictionary entries for Obunga range from straightforward definitions to semi-ironic deification, with users calling it "God himself making an appearance back on earth".

Full History

What makes Obunga unusual among political photoshop memes is its complete detachment from politics. Nobody uses it to make a point about Obama's policies or legacy. Instead, it functions purely as a horror image, closer to a creepypasta character than a political cartoon.

The meme's first life (2013-2016) was quiet. That original /tv/ thread in July 2013 came with the tongue-in-cheek context of discussing Obama's favorite TV show, *The Wire*. The edit was jarring enough to save and repost, but 4chan threads are ephemeral by design, and Obunga didn't immediately catch fire beyond the board. Its reappearance on /v/ in 2016 with the "Juhrack Johbama" filename showed the image had survived in someone's saved folder for three years, passed around in the background of chan culture without any mainstream visibility.

The 2018 breakout was rapid and multi-platform. After the YouTube and Instagram explosion in June, the meme developed two distinct tracks. On one side were the screamer and horror edits, where Obunga would suddenly appear in otherwise normal-looking videos, usually scored to *Five Nights at Freddy's* music. On the other side were ironic and absurdist meme formats, particularly on subreddits like r/okbuddyretard and r/dankmemes, where the image got captioned and remixed into new contexts.

The Garry's Mod chapter brought Obunga back from the dead four years later. On July 2, 2018, right at the height of Obunga-mania, Steam Workshop user The Globfather had submitted an Obunga NPC mod for the Nextbot Chase game mode in Garry's Mod. Nextbot Chase is a horror-style mode where players are chased by AI-controlled characters that sprint at them with static images as faces. Obunga's unsettling visage was a perfect fit for the format, but the mod sat on the Workshop for years before finding its audience.

That changed in summer 2022. On July 6, YouTuber Whitt posted a gameplay video featuring the Obunga Nextbot that hit 2.6 million views in three weeks. On July 20, GirthQuake uploaded "Obunga is actually horrifying," which grabbed 263,000 views in a single week. TikTok creators picked up on the trend as well, flooding the platform with clips of players screaming as the Obunga face sprinted toward them.

The Roblox saga added a controversy layer. On August 4, 2022, Obunga appeared as a playable element in Roblox. But it didn't last. On September 19, 2022, Roblox moderation removed all Obunga content from the platform, citing it as "discriminatory content". The removal sparked debate among users about whether the image was inherently racist (a digitally distorted photo of the first Black president) or whether it had evolved beyond any racial reading into a pure horror meme. The Daily Dot noted that the racial implications were a recurring point of tension throughout the meme's history, with many observers pointing out that the combination of 4chan origins and a distorted image of a Black public figure was "racist as hell" regardless of how its users interpreted it.

Fun Facts

The filename "Juhrack Johbama.jpg" from the 2016 /v/ repost is a phonetic mangling of "Barack Obama" and has been preserved in 4chan archives.

Obunga's 2022 Garry's Mod revival came from a Steam Workshop mod that had been sitting dormant since July 2018, uploaded during the meme's original peak.

PewDiePie's Obunga video hit 2.7 million views and 35,200 comments in a single day, making it one of the faster-spreading meme review moments on his channel.

The meme is one of a handful to be explicitly banned from Roblox under "discriminatory content" moderation rules.

Derivatives & Variations

Sans Obunga

A mashup blending the Obunga face with Sans from *Undertale*, posted to r/dankmemes in June 2018[4].

Obunga Nextbot

A Garry's Mod NPC chase mod submitted to Steam Workshop by The Globfather on July 2, 2018, which drove the 2022 revival[5].

Obunga screamer videos

A whole genre of bait-and-switch videos on Instagram and YouTube pairing the image with *Five Nights at Freddy's* audio[1].

Roblox Obunga

A short-lived Roblox implementation that was removed by platform moderation in September 2022 for being "discriminatory content"[2].

Frequently Asked Questions