Requirements to Be My Friend
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About
Requirements to Be My Friend, also known as Requirements to Be a Friend of X, refers to a series of memes that list the requirements for one or several characters from a piece of media, with the punchline usually being that one character is racist and will only be friends with characters whose skin tone is light enough. Inspired by the Family Guy Skin Color Chart, the exploitable meme format achieved initial virality in April 2022.
Origin
On March 17th, 2013, episode 11 "Turban Cowboy" of season 11 of Family Guy premiered. At one point in the episode, Peter Griffin drives a bomb-filled van across a bridge, with a toll booth worker holding a "skin color chart" to his face before letting him pass (still frame shown below). The episode later spawned a meme, with the frame sometimes being used for jokes about racism.
Prior to April 15th, 2022, the Instagram[1] page @lclflavor posted a Neon Genesis Evangelion meme titled "Requirements to be a friend of" and showing three anime characters along with the supposed requirements to be their friend, with the punchline being that the character Asuka Langley is racist and only befriending characters whose skin tone is light enough. While the original post is no longer available, on April 15th, 2022, iFunny[2] user Lil_L3eaner reposted the image, with the post gaining over 430 smiles in two years. It is possible that prior instances of the meme exist.
On April 16th, 2022, iFunny[3] user krgwjyzdqi5601 posted the earliest found derivative version of the meme, a meme about Vtubers Mori Calliope, Gawr Gura and Watson Amelia that gained over 20 smiles on the platform in two years (shown below, right).
Spread
The format saw further spread on Facebook, and later on Reddit in late May 2022, where it achieved particular popularity in the /r/ShitPostCrusaders subreddit. During that period, multiple versions of the meme featuring JoJo's Bizarre Adventure characters, some of them translations of memes previously posted in meme communities on Facebook,[3] were posted in the subreddit (examples[4][5] shown below).
Throughout 2022 and 2023, more examples of the meme featuring characters from various anime series and video games were shared online. For example, on November 5th, 2022, iFunny[6] user Desativad0 posted a Dragon Ball version of the meme that garnered over 1,300 smiles in two years (shown below, left).
On November 22nd, X[7] user @HANCOCK_LOL posted a League of Legends version of the meme that received over 900 reposts and 13,000 likes in two years (shown below, right).
On January 26h, 2023, X meme account @ShitpostGate reposted an Avatar: The Last Airbender version meme created by an unknown user that achieved particular virality. The post (shown below) accumulated over 2,900 reposts and 79,000 likes in one year, with an April 9th, 2024, repost of the meme garnering over 4,300 reposts and 107,000 likes in one month.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] iFunny – Lil_I3eaner
[2] iFunny – krgwjyzdqi5601
[3] Reddit – Requirement to be Joseph's friend
[4] Reddit – Requirements to be Josuke's friend
[5] Reddit – Requirements to be Josuke's friend
[6] iFunny – Desativad0_2022
[7] X – @HANCOCK_LOL
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