The Winner of This Contest Was Chosen Through Likes (2024)

About

The Winner of This Contest Was Chosen Through Likes, known as El Ganador de Esta Dinámica se Eligió por Likes in Spanish, refers to a two-panel format in which a poor drawing is announced the winner of an art contest, with a much better drawing taking second place, and a disclaimer added that the selection process is based on the number of likes. Originating from a viral 2019 Facebook post, the format gained popularity among Spanish-speaking users in July 2020 and achieved global spread in July 2021.

Origin

On September 20th, 2019, the official Facebook^[1] page of Mexican video game store chain Frikiplaza posted the results of its Dark Phoenix drawing contest. Raul Lopez Aguilar was declared the winner of the contest, with a perceivably better drawing by Angel Sanz taking second place. In the post, Frikiplaza made a disclaimer that the selection process was based on the number of likes the submissions got. The post received over 74,000 reactions and 83,000 shares in two years (shown below).

Spread

The Frikiplaza post received viral spread online among Spanish-speaking users through multiple reposts. However, the meme format did not spawn until July 2020 when the first derivative memes based on the post started appearing. On July 14th and 17th, Instagram^[2]^[3] page dank.boyz posted the earliest two discovered posts that utilized the format. The posts received over 2,300 likes and 3,200 likes in one year (shown below, left and right).

The format achieved recognition on July 19th, 2020, when Facebook^[4] page Sabrina Spellman Memes made a parody post that received over 103,000 reactions and 34,000 shares in one year (shown below, left).

In late July 2020, the format received viral spread online, with a number of viral posts made by Spanish-speaking Facebook communities. For example, on July 19th, 2020, Facebook^[5] page Memes del Tio Mail II posted a parody that received over 293,000 reactions and 49,000 shares in one year (shown below, center). On July 21st, Facebook^[6] page Mascota Club EC posted a version that gained over 44,000 reactions and 53,000 shares in the same period (shown below, right). On September 26th, Facebook^[7] page Lomunidad copied Mascota Club EC's post, with the repost receiving over 193,000 reactions and 5,600 shares in ten months.

On September 8th, 2020, Redditor^[8] TiggerElPro reposted a version of the meme to the /r/beatlescirclejerk subreddit, translating it to English in the title, with the post gaining over 1,700 upvotes in six months (shown below, left). On October 3rd, Redditor^[9] elch3w posted a meme in which they reacted to the screenshot of Lomunidad's post to the /r/memes subreddit, with the post gaining over 9,800 upvotes in six months (shown below, center). On October 4th, Tumblr^[10] page catchymemes reposted^[11] an I Love Democracy meme, with the post gaining over 26,600 likes and reblogs in nine months (shown below, right).

On November 10th, Redditor^[12] jojuju1611 posted the first original English version of the meme which received over 42,000 upvotes in six months (shown below, left). The image received viral spread; for example, a November 11th repost by iFunny^[13] user SlanderAndCalumny gained over 66,600 smiles in eight months.

In 2021, several English versions of the meme were circulated.^[14]^[15]

The format saw a surge in popularity with a July 22nd, 2021, Instagram^[16] post by user frog.page. The post was misinterpreted as sincere by multiple users, going viral in the following days. For example, on July 27th, Twitter^[17] user @thegallowboob tweeted the image, writing "imagine spending 40 hours perfecting your photorealistic frog only to get crushed by this thing," with the tweet gaining over 2,300 retweets and 15,500 likes in three days (image and tweet shown below, center and right).