The Lantern Hall
Painting: an ancient lexicon open on a carved lectern in a dark chapel of books, glowing runes and symbols lifting off its pages like fireflies.
TermGeneral term2016

NPC (meme)

Internet slang, drawn from the gaming term Non-player character, for people accused of not thinking for themselves and repeating stock phrases like a scripted game character. The gray-faced NPC Wojak image became a political insult and later a TikTok performance trend.

Internet slang, drawn from the gaming term Non-player character, for people accused of not thinking for themselves and repeating stock phrases like a scripted game character. The gray-faced NPC Wojak image became a political insult and later a TikTok performance trend.

Origin

The NPC Wojak appeared on 4chan in 2016; it drew mainstream press coverage in October 2018, and NPC streaming went viral on TikTok in 2022.

Quick answers

What does "NPC (meme)" mean?
Internet slang, drawn from the gaming term Non-player character, for people accused of not thinking for themselves and repeating stock phrases like a scripted game character. The gray-faced NPC Wojak image became a political insult and later a TikTok performance trend.
Where does the term "NPC (meme)" come from?
The NPC Wojak appeared on 4chan in 2016; it drew mainstream press coverage in October 2018, and NPC streaming went viral on TikTok in 2022.

Nearby in the archive

Non-player character

Tabletop term

Any character not controlled by a player: the innkeeper, the villain, the hireling and the king, all voiced by the Game Master. The term passed into video games for computer-controlled characters and, much later, into internet slang as an insult (see NPC (meme)).

Mob

Digital term1978

A computer-controlled creature in an online game, especially a hostile one to be fought. Players talk of pulling, killing and farming mobs.

The magic circle

General term1938

The boundary that separates a game from ordinary life, inside which special rules and meanings apply. Game scholars debate how porous it is, as when virtual gold sells for real money or a character's grief becomes the player's.