Girls Laughing

About

Girls Laughing (also known as “Laughing Whores”) refers to a type of reaction images depicting two or more teenage girls laughing or snickering at something. Such images are commonly used as replies in imageboards to mock or dismiss original poster’s thread that may be deemed pathetic or inadequate, similar to the usage of Facepalm and George Costanza’s Reaction Face.

Origin

The earliest known instance of “girls laughing” image was posted in a thread about 1954 drama teleplay 12 Angry Men via 4chan’s /tv/ (television) board on August 4th, 2009:

The image used in the thread originated from a stock photograph titled “Young women laughing in a photo booth” licensed by Getty Images.^[1]

Spread

Since early August 2009, the same stock photograph and other variations of “girls laughing” images have been used as discouraging reaction images in dozens of threads over several imageboards, including /r9k/ (robot9000), /sp/ (sports), /b/ (random) and /a/ (anime) among others.

4. Notable Examples

Usage

Partly due to the widespread myth that there are no girls on the internet and fragile nature of male ego, the idea of girls laughing at someone adds much insult to injury. While the “Girls Laughing” reaction images are usually targeted at the person who made the thread, it has been also used to poke fun at others’ replies to the said thread or the conversation in its entirety.

Oftentimes, “Girls Laughing” reaction images are accompanied by greentext quotes that are told from the girls’ point of view:

Derivatives

Most common instances of “Laughing Girls” in circulation today are believed to have evolved from the instance shown above. Derivative illustrations may be modified to better suit the themes of discussion topic; for instance, in replying to a discussion thread about Pokemon, the laughing girls would be drawn to resemble that of female Pokemon characters.