“Friend-Zoned Phil” is the latest meme with an Asian guy circulating the intarwebs, thanks to those crazy folks at Reddit.
Behold! The Friend-Zoned Phil Meme is an image series featuring an Asian guy “Phil,” who is in the friend zone– that is, a guy who has a really great girl friend that’s not a girlfriend.
Friend-Zoned Phil is flip side of “Friend Zone Fiona,” the pretty (white) chick who PUTS guys like Phil into the “friend zone.” But “Phil” is clearly an Asian man… what does this meme?!
We see lots of funny memes with Asians– Tiger Mom, High Expectations Asian Father, Cigar Guy, Rioting Hockey Fan, to name a few. And yes, they pretty much all play on Asian stereotypes to some degree– that’s part of the humor of it all.
But I have to ask two questions:
- Who is “Friend-Zoned Phil” in real life and does his know his picture is a meme?
- Why is “Friend-Zoned Phil” an Asian guy? (Seriously, he could have been white and the meme still would have worked.)
I wish I knew the identity of poor “Phil.” As our pals at Disgrasian said: “If you’re a friend of the real ‘Friend-Zoned Phil, i.e. the dude in the pic, it’s your duty to let him know he’s wound up on the wrong side of an internet meme.”
As for the second question, I’ll leave it to you to chime in on why you think Friend-Zoned Phil is Asian.
I also want you to chime in on one last (multiple-choice) question.
Is Friend-Zoned Phil:
- Racist
- Funny
- Both
- or None of the Above?
