Obama is a schmuck

"Obama is a Schmuck!" (NRU, Russian: Обама — чмо!, romanized: Obama — chmo) is an Internet meme[1] that gained popularity in Russia from 2014; an invective[2] and an act of vernacular symbolic aggression.[2] The meme consisted of an invective public address to the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama (in office 2009 to 2017), framed as a response to the sanctions against Russia in 2014.

Origins

External videos
Mikhail Zadornov — Obama Is a Schmuck! on YouTube (2 min 27 sec)

Researchers of symbolic aggression against Barack Obama from philological and cultural perspectives, Alexandra Arkhipova, Daria Radchenko and Alexey Titkov, note that the expression acquired "extraordinary popularity"[3] in January 2015 in connection with a video in which the satirist Mikhail Zadornov, perceived by Russian audiences as a "specialist in mocking everything American", performed a rap including the words "Obama is a Schmuck".[3] The authors write, however, that the mass spread of insulting inscriptions and stickers featuring Obama had occurred several months earlier, and cars bearing such slogans were included in the video footage.[4] The audio version of the invective expressed in the clip did not subsequently achieve wide circulation,[4] but early comments under the video, which researchers suggest may have included organized paid commentators, read: "We should put an 'Obama is a Schmuck' sticker on our cars too" and "We need to hold such an action across Russia so that as many people as possible put them up".[3]

Car stickers

According to the study by Alexandra Arkhipova, Darya Radchenko and Alexei Titkov, in 2014 there were few media references to "Obama is a Schmuck" stickers, together with other slogans of similar meaning,[5] accounting for 7% of all press mentions of car stickers between 1 January 2014 and 1 June 2016. Most were recorded in regional media in autumn 2014 and described a nontrivial practice of "vernacular patriotism." The tone suggested that the practice was relatively new and episodic, and negative reactions were not yet represented. In 2015, 80 percent of all mentions, 412 items, appeared in the media, and the tone shifted. The public visibility and ethical ambiguity of the practice made it the subject of intensive discussion online and in the press. Social network platforms actively published photographs of such vehicles with comments expressing both approval and disapproval. In many cases, the "Obama is a Schmuck" sticker ceased to be perceived as a humorous response to sanctions or a manifestation of civic patriotism, and was discussed in sharply negative terms.[2]

Foreign media reported in 2020 that although Barack Obama had been replaced as U.S. president in January 2017 by Donald Trump, stickers bearing the slogan "Obama is a Schmuck" were still offered by many Russian online stores.[6]

In February 2020, a scandal erupted after media reported that the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Departmental Security" of the Ministry of Energy of Russia had planned to purchase "Obama is a Schmuck" stickers for its North Caucasus branch under a state contract.[7] The ministry later stated that the sticker had appeared on the procurement list due to a technical error or "a text editor mistake such as T9", canceled the tender,[8] and disciplined three employees.[9]

Philosophical analysis

The Belarusian philosopher and publicist Pavel Barkovsky writes that the effects of post-ideology, including distortions of reality in a syncretic worldview and the erosion of boundaries between truth and falsehood, violence and peace, the real and the unreal, are easily disseminated through propaganda and information warfare. These effects operate not only at the level of state propaganda but also at the grassroots level of vernacular communication, through the influence of political rhetoric on the patterns of thought and action of ordinary Russians.[10] Arkhipova, Radchenko and Titkov state that their research did not reveal simple "reflections" or "imprints" of state propaganda in the spread of this invective. "Russian state television channels and newspapers in 2014 and 2015 did not teach citizens to place 'No entry for Obama' notices on kiosks and did not call on them to put 'Obama is a Schmuck' stickers on cars", the authors note.[11]

Linguistic analysis

The expression "Obama is a Schmuck" represents a form of vernacular symbolic aggression, a direct or indirect invective address. It implies a different mode of engagement in which a statement balancing between insult and ridicule is placed at the boundary between private and public space, for example as a sticker on a personal car reading "Obama is a Schmuck".[2] The fact that the inscriptions are placed on private vehicles preserves the character of a personal statement, while the message nonetheless has an implicit addressee.[2] By placing such a provocative inscription on their cars, drivers acquire an additional degree of public visibility, and the message is read as a demonstration of belonging to a particular group and as a public expression of a personal political stance.[2] The primary channel for the spread of the phenomenon is vernacular communication.[11][12]

Such an inscription dynamically marks public space as controlled territory in which the opponent has no power and may be symbolically humiliated.[4] Over time, the invective transcended its usual placement in private space or at the boundary of private and public space. The text began to appear on various public objects, including relict cacti in a nature reserve in Yalta or on the runway of the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria. In this way, the figure of an individual addresser gradually dissolved and was replaced by an anonymous public "response".[13] Symbolic aggression thus became a public collective response signaling to a foreign or hostile territory.[14] This stage of public messaging is significant because it marks the transition from vernacular forms of reaction, whether individual or small group based, to organized collective forms.[14]

Assessments

Sergey Strokan, international commentator for the publishing house Kommersant, noted that "Obama is a Schmuck" stickers on the rear windows of mid range foreign cars on Moscow streets became one of the most vivid symbols of the perception of Barack Obama in Russia during his presidency in the United States.[15][16]

The historian Dmitry Gromov, a leading researcher at the Center for the Study of Interethnic Relations of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, identified the expression "Obama is a Schmuck" as a meme within pro Putin discourse.[1]

In 2018, the Russian journalist Konstantin Eggert, writing in Deutsche Welle, expressed the view that for Russians it is almost the number one question what the "metaphorical Obama" will say about their country. "The meme 'Obama is a Schmuck' could appear and now be replaced by 'Trump is a Schmuck' only in Russia", he wrote.[17]

Rankings

In 2015, the expression "Obama is a Schmuck" in Russia was named an anti language unit in the "Anti Word of the Year" category, language of propaganda and hostility, within the framework of the Word of the Year project organized by the portal snob.ru.[18][19]

References

  1. ^ a b Gromov 2018, p. 212.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Arkhipova, Radchenko & Titkov 2017, p. 119.
  3. ^ a b c Arkhipova, Radchenko & Titkov 2017, p. 120.
  4. ^ a b c Arkhipova, Radchenko & Titkov 2017, p. 121.
  5. ^ The authors cite similar examples such as "I will buy Obama's hide", "Put Obama in a pit, honk if you agree", and others.
  6. ^ "В Минэнерго РФ отозвали заказ на покупку наклеек "Обама чмо"". dw.com (in Russian). Retrieved 2026-03-03.
  7. ^ Kirill Sedov, Elena Malakhovskaya. Ministry of Energy security included purchase of "Obama chmo" stickers in state contract for car repairs // Open Media, 7 February 2020.
  8. ^ "Охрана Минэнерго собиралась закупить наклейки с надписью «Обама ЧМО». Теперь там говорят, что, возможно, во всем виновата автозамена". Meduza (in Russian). Retrieved 2026-03-03.
  9. ^ "Минэнерго наказало троих сотрудников за закупку наклейки «Обама ЧМО» для машин своей охраны". Открытые Медиа (in Russian). 2020-02-20. Retrieved 2026-03-03.
  10. ^ Barkovsky 2018, p. 78.
  11. ^ a b Arkhipova, Radchenko & Titkov 2017, p. 114.
  12. ^ Barkovsky 2018, pp. 78–79.
  13. ^ Arkhipova, Radchenko & Titkov 2017, p. 123.
  14. ^ a b Arkhipova, Radchenko & Titkov 2017, p. 126.
  15. ^ "Отношения России и США в переводе с языка жестов". Коммерсантъ (in Russian). 2015-12-25. Retrieved 2026-03-03.
  16. ^ Plakhina & Belyakova 2016, p. 173.
  17. ^ "Почему Россия - (пока) не Армения". dw.com (in Russian). Retrieved 2026-03-03.
  18. ^ Shevchenko 2016, p. 200.
  19. ^ Arkhipova, Radchenko & Titkov 2017, p. 122.

Sources

Further reading

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