Yao Ming Face (Bitch Please)

Origin

The source is a photograph from a May 2009 post-game press conference. Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets centre and one of the most recognisable athletes in the world, is caught mid-laugh — head back, eyes squeezed shut, mouth wide — reacting after his teammate Ron Artest left the interview.

It is a completely ordinary photograph of a man finding something funny.

The meme is a traced drawing of it, made by a Reddit user in July 2010 as an unused rage face — one of a set of crude MS Paint faces being produced for rage comics. It was posted to the rage comic subreddit on July 11, 2010.

What it means / how it’s used

The face means dismissal through laughter. It waves something away as unworthy of concern — the visual equivalent of “please” — and it is used when the poster finds a claim, threat, or difficulty faintly ridiculous.

Its uses:

• Brushing off a challenge as trivial.
• Reacting to an unimpressive boast.
• Rage comic panels expressing contempt.
• Nostalgic reference to the rage comic era.

It is not aggressive. The face is laughing, not sneering, which keeps the dismissal light — an important distinction from the more hostile faces in the same set.

How it spread

Adoption was fast within the rage comic ecosystem. The face was added to the subreddit’s official template set on August 31, 2010, variations appeared through September 2010, and it was incorporated into Reddit’s built-in rage face comment icons by May 23, 2011.

Its name came from the community. A user suggested the caption that stuck, and the face has been known by it ever since, alongside alternatives.

A dedicated Facebook page took 44,628 likes by February 2011, and the face became one of the most reproduced images of the rage comic period.

Notable examples & variations

• Rage comic panels using it as the dismissive reaction.
• Standalone use as a reply image.
• Higher-quality redraws and colourised versions.
• The original press-conference photograph, shared as trivia.
• Nostalgic reposts marking the 2010–2012 era.

Legacy / cultural impact

Yao Ming Face is one of the core rage faces, alongside Trollface, Forever Alone, and Rage Guy — a set that dominated Reddit and 4chan for roughly three years and then vanished almost completely.

There is also an uncomfortable dimension worth stating. Yao Ming is a real person who was photographed laughing at a press conference, and the internet turned his face into a crude line drawing used millions of times without his involvement. He has generally taken it well, and has referenced the meme publicly — but it belongs to a category of memes built from candid photographs of individuals who were never asked.