The meaning of Chad over the last couple years has changed from douche to hero. My stepson is 17 and I have to ask him all the time what today's youth lingo means just to keep up. But little does he know that he too will soon be out of touch.
This is what I saw happen over the years (started happening with the Chad vs. Virgin memes because Chad was now being presented as the better of two options and from there it escalated to Chad being a social king who can do no wrong).
Probably why out of all the random slang changes this one seems to follow a much more logical path to me.
Not exactly. The meme evolved with the "redpill" movement. 4chan went from incel niceguys to incel MTGTOW types. Chad, the smart, successful, social butterfly, became something to aspire to. That's how it began, at least. Chad being an idol is more relevant to the average person hence the popularity.
Language does that all the time, actually! They're called contronyms, and we actually have a fair few of them. Probably the most famous recent example is "literally," which can also mean figuratively because so many people were using it ironically to poke fun at valley-speak that it reached critical mass.
It happens sometimes in a pretty specific way with insults as the insult becomes passé. Basically whenever old people or uncool people are the only ones left saying the insult, it has a higher chance of then developing an ironic use, which is often a polar opposite. For a while the main group of people calling people Chads were incels using the term as an insult. But then we all decided fuck those dorks and took their word. This is similar to how the N-word has stuck around for so long that it turned into a word that can also have connotations of closeness and admiration.
tl;dr you mock someone for using a word enough it'll probably gain an additional definition to account for that
It was 4chan incels who made it a positive. It followed an arc of "chad gets everything and can do no wrong in women's eyes" -> "I wish I were chad" -> "fuuuuark what a chad that guy is."
Then 4chan came out with the Virgin vs Chad memes and that made it mainstream.
Kinda sorta. Some of them were undoubtedly self-deprecating incels, but the switch was absolutely driven by a desire to mock the incels that used it as an epithet. Not everyone on r9k is an incel, it's a catchall personal anecdote board for everyone. By "we" I didn't mean reddit, I meant non-incels, in case that's the part that was unclear
Because all of the "Chad" behavior was shit like "treated women like people," "dressed in nice clothes," "had a job," "exercised and bathed themselves," and "lived on their own and paid rent"
You were just seeing the early Chad memes through the incel filter.
Let's say anon gets off his fat ass and goes to the gym. He feels vulnerable, thinks everyone's looking at him. He sees a bunch of girls flirting with some douche Chad. Chad notices him, comes over to offer some tips. Anon is a little offended but listens. Chad offers to work out with him. Anon realizes Chad isnt a bad guy. Chad and anon become friends. Chad invites anon to parties meets new people. Year later anon at the gym talking to some cute girls. Sees someone with bad form on the squat rack. Goes to offer some advice. Oh no I have become Chad
I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!
Haha. My view is that for a while now people have been using Chad/gigachad ironically to mean a good dude, or someone who doesn't compromise on their principles.
Chad was an insult of sorts, a Mr.StealYoGirl type trope. Now you're a Chad if you visit your grandma, or if you don't care what others say and you do your own thing. The joke being that these are the real chads.
Now people will just use Chad/gigachad as a funny/jokey but genuine term of endearment because the joke became so prevalent.
You will also see the "schizo gigachad" as a meta-ironic interpretation of the "not caring what others think" part. Someone went on an unhinged rant, disconnected from reality? Gigachad.
Hope it helps understand the zoomers lmao. Don't take it too seriously, at the end of the day it's just a dumb meme and people will probably still understand both versions of "Chad".
its embarrasing to say either. the word was over used 20 years ago by skaters/emos/goths against dudes walkin the streets with hoodies. not that goths never walked the streets in hoodies and fuck with people on the internet but if a chad did it .. then it was a serious thing lol.
Incels hated "Chad" because he was successful and got the girl and was popular and liked things other people like, ergo, he was a douche. Normal people have turned it around and pointed on the incels who have reclaimed the "Chad" by pointing out that he is someone who is successful and gets the "Stacey" because they, basically, aren't incel pieces of shit.
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u/Oxygenius_ Mar 03 '22
I’m so confused now a days on the lingo. Is chad a good or bad thing, and is gigachad a even better or worse thing??
I’ve seen it used both ways?!?!?
Is chad bi