Sickos is a word often ascribed to a character colloquially called Sickos Guy, who originated from a 2015 comic by Ward Sutton for The Onion under the pseudonym Stan Kelly. He is depicted as a disheveled man, wearing a black shirt labeled "Sickos" with an evil grin, and cackling as he mutters "Yes... Ha ha ha... Yes!" while looking through a window.
Following his debut, Sickos Guy became an Internet meme used to describe taking pleasure in events considered perverse or unfortunate such as schadenfreude. The character has also appeared in sports discussions by fans enjoying games involving poor-performing teams.
Origin
Stan Kelly is a persona created by Sutton of a middle-aged political cartoonist with hard conservative views. Kelly illustrates his fears of the United States' decline, which he attributes to "sickos" who "threaten our precious way of life at every turn" such as teenagers loitering and listening to hip-hop, store managers who refuse to accept coupons, and Michelle Obama's nationwide health campaigns.[1] Various characters throughout Kelly's comics have also been labeled as such, like the Grim Reaper as "Sicko cult practices".[2]
On February 16, 2015, The Onion, a satirical newspaper, published a comic by Kelly titled Painful Procedural. The comic, captioned "If Drugs Are Legalized", depicts a family watching a procedural drama in which the detective woefully tells his police chief that there is "nothing much to do" so the police department should be shut down. The family—with the father labeled "honest viewers" and the son "innocent kids"—tearfully reacts to this development as does the Statue of Liberty, while a newspaper on the floor is headlined, "All crime dramas canceled". Behind them, an unkempt man wearing a black sweater labeled "Sickos" is laughing maniacally, "Yes... Ha ha ha... Yes!", as he watches.[3]
The "Sickos Guy" continued to occasionally appear in Kelly's comics as an analogue for liberals taking pleasure in the downfall of American society. Sutton explained in 2020 that the character wears a black shirt and black hair to symbolize that he's a villain, while the stubble and bangs in his hair are "something that only a nefarious person would have" in Kelly's perspective. While often used to analogize liberals, Sutton clarified Kelly's belief is that the Sickos Guy does not have a particular political alignment and rather that the average modern American looks that way.[4]
Sutton, who was often tagged when the image was posted, is unsure as to how it became a meme and described its rise as a "complicated and weird thing".[4][6] He called the spread "mind-blowing" and was "grateful it doesn't seem to have been used for any really negative purposes – from what I've seen it's mostly all in fun".[5]
While Sutton enjoyed seeing the character's popularity, he condemned attempts to profit from it by selling merchandise.[4][5] Sickos Guy merchandise is legally produced by The Onion.[4]
Sports
"We're the Sickos because we watch everything. It's not the teams who are Sickos. We're the ones who are sick. We're the ones at the window looking in, going, 'Ha Ha Ha … Yes!' at all these great games."
Sickos Guy has been used as a mascot for sports fans who revel in matches between struggling teams or with unusual events.
In 2020, the Sickos CommitteeTwitter account was created by college football fans in a Discord server for sportwriters. The Committee focuses on covering games where both teams are substandard and amusing topics in football news. For example, their top game for Week 9 of the 2022 season was a matchup between Iowa, who had the worst-ranking offense in the country, and Northwestern, who had not won in the United States in over a year.[5] At the end of the season, Iowa was named the committee's "national champion" after finishing the year ranked 130th of 131 schools in total offense; the Committee ran a fundraiser for an Iowa City food bank to commemorate the occasion.[7] During the 2023 Quick Lane Bowl, where the score was a paltry 10–9 at halftime, play-by-play annnouncer Connor Onion quipped that the "Sickos Committee is out there saying, 'Ha ha ha... Yes!'".[8]
The Committee frequently highlights MACtion and "Pac-12 After Dark" games, respectively midweek Mid-American Conference games and Pac-12 Conference meetings in late hours that tend to be exciting despite their otherwise low viewership.[9] George Smith, the self-proclaimed commissioner of the committee, said in 2022 that he and those who run the account legitimately enjoy the sport for its unusual events and do not intend to mock those they cover.[5] Sutton approved of the Committee using his character as long as they did not make profit off it.[5]
When the Ottawa Senators were struggling during the 2020–21 NHL season, Senators fans used Sickos Guy as a mascot while hoping the team would continue losing to improve their chances at a high pick in the NHL entry draft's lottery.[10] A Twitter user named Chris, who is credited with the Sens Sicko movement, called it "such a backwards way of cheering for the Sens" that it made losses enjoyable.[11] The team embraced the meme by selling cardboard cutouts to be placed in the stands for games played without fans due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, and playing a sickos-themed parody of the song "Say I Yi Yi" at the arena.[12][11] Following the Senators' March 14, 2021 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs, head coach D. J. Smith referenced the meme and cutouts by proclaiming, "I love the passion of the fans, and I gotta say to them: 'YES ... HA HA HA... YES!"[6]
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