{{for|the film|Sickos (film)}} {{Infobox comics character | character_name = Sickos | image = Sickos Guy.jpg | caption =The character's most well-known appearance, from the 2015 comic ''Painful Procedural'' | debut = October 13, 2006<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kelly |first=Stan |date=2006-10-13 |title=Editorial Cartoon - October 13, 2006 |url=https://theonion.com/editorial-cartoon-october-13-2006-1819588328/ |access-date=2026-05-29 |website=The Onion |language=en-US}}</ref> | creators = [[Ward Sutton]] }} '''Sickos''' is a term associated with a character colloquially referred to as the '''Sickos Guy''', originating from a running gag in comic strips created by [[Ward Sutton]] for ''[[The Onion]]'', created under the pseudonym Stan Kelly. The character is shown as a disheveled man wearing a black shirt labeled "Sickos", grinning through a window and saying, "Yes… Ha ha ha… Yes!"
The character has been adopted as an [[Internet meme]], typically used to depict amusement or approval at situations perceived as negative, unfortunate, or otherwise undesirable such as [[schadenfreude]]. It has also been used in sports contexts, particularly among fans expressing enjoyment when teams perform poorly.
==Origin== Stan Kelly is a fictional persona created by Ward Sutton, depicted as a middle-aged [[editorial cartoonist]] with strongly [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] views. Through the character, Sutton satirizes fears of societal decline in the United States, which Kelly attributes to "sickos" who he believes endanger [[Traditionalist conservatism|traditional values]]. Targets of Kelly’s criticism have included teenagers [[loitering]] and listening to [[hip-hop|rap]] bands, [[Store manager|store managers]] who refuse [[Coupon|coupons]], and [[Michelle Obama]]'s [[Let's Move!]] public health campaign.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Heller |first=Steven |url=https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/alt-cartoonist-stan-kelly/ |title=The Alt-Cartoonist: Kelly |magazine=[[Print (magazine)|Print]] |date=November 6, 2016 |access-date=October 26, 2025}}</ref> Kelly's comics often contradict themselves, adding to the satire. Various characters throughout Kelly's comics have also been labeled in similar ways, like the [[Grim Reaper]], which is often labeled "Socialism" and "Communism", along with variants like "Sicko Cult Practices".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Larson |first=Sarah |date=October 16, 2016 |title=Brilliantly Wrong: The Political Cartoons of the Onion's Stan Kelly |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/sarah-larson/brilliantly-terrible-the-political-cartoons-of-the-onions-stan-kelly |url-access=subscription |access-date=October 26, 2025 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref>
The character was first introduced in a September 13, 2006 comic, where he was portrayed as a [[School shooting|school shooter]] looking at a school's armed self-defense class (which Kelly sees as a viable solution to school shootings). However, the most well-known appearance of the character was in the February 16, 2015 comic ''Painful Procedural''. In the comic, the caption "If Drugs Are Legalized" accompanies a scene in which a stereotypical American family (another recurring element in Kelly's cartoons) watches a [[police procedural]] on television that ends due to a lack of crime. The family, labeled "honest viewers" and "innocent kids", reacts with distress alongside an anthropomorphized [[Statue of Liberty]], while a newspaper headline reads "All crime dramas canceled". Outside the window, a man in a black shirt (as Kelly often uses black clothing as a signifier for people believed to endanger traditional values) labeled "Sickos" grins and says, "Yes… Ha ha ha… <u>''Yes''</u>!"<ref>{{cite web|last=Kelly|first=Stan|url=https://theonion.com/painful-procedural-1819592076/|title=Painful Procedural|newspaper=[[The Onion]]|date=February 16, 2015|access-date=October 26, 2025}}</ref> This figure, later known as the "Sickos Guy", became a recurring element in Kelly's comics, representing individuals who take satisfaction in perceived moral or societal decline, after the success of this comic.
Sutton explained in 2020 that the character’s black clothing and unkempt appearance were intended to signify villainy from Kelly’s perspective. Although the Sickos Guy is often portrayed as a stand-in for liberal and left-wing figures, Sutton clarified that the character was meant to reflect Kelly’s view of the general modern American rather than a specific political alignment.<ref name="Interview With the Cartoonist">{{cite magazine|last=Pahwa|first=Nitish|url=https://slate.com/culture/2020/12/sickos-meme-ward-sutton-kartoonist-kelly.html|title=An Interview With the Cartoonist Behind the Only Meme Worthy of Our Current Train Wreck|magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|date=December 16, 2020|access-date=October 26, 2025|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
==Popularity== The Sickos character became a popular image on [[social media]], often used by users to express amusement at news or events perceived as unfortunate for the subject involved.<ref name="Sickos Committee NY Times" /> In 2020, Nitish Pahwa of ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'' noted political examples of its use, including mockery of efforts by [[Donald Trump]] supporters to [[Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election|overturn the 2020 United States presidential election]] and reactions to the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]’s threats to boycott the [[2020–21 United States Senate election in Georgia]].<ref name="Interview With the Cartoonist" />
Ward Sutton, who was frequently tagged when the image circulated, stated that he was uncertain how it became a meme, describing its spread as "a complicated and weird thing".<ref name="Interview With the Cartoonist" /><ref name="Sickos have invaded" /> He characterized the phenomenon as "mind-blowing" and expressed appreciation that the image generally appeared to be used humorously rather than maliciously.<ref name="Sickos Committee NY Times" /> While Sutton welcomed the character’s popularity, he criticized unauthorized commercial use of the image.<ref name="Interview With the Cartoonist" /><ref name="Sickos Committee NY Times" /> Official merchandise featuring the Sickos Guy is produced by ''The Onion''.<ref name="Interview With the Cartoonist" />
Its popularity gave rise to variants as well. Notably, in the wake of the 2026 announcement that the Paris prosecutor's office searched through the French offices of [[X Corp.|X]] over the Grok chatbot's image generation feature (''further information: [[Grok (chatbot)#Sexual deepfake and illegal content generation on X|Sexual deepfake and illegal content generation on X]]''), a variant spread on rival social media platform [[Bluesky]] depicting the character as a stereotypical French aristocrat with a shirt saying "Pervers," still grinning through a window saying "Oui... hon hon hon... oui!" This variant was typically used with a news outlet's article on the office raid as a quote-post.{{Citation needed|date=April 2026}}
==Sports== {{quote box | quote = "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." | source = Jordan Edmonson, Sickos Committee member<ref name="Sickos Committee NY Times" /> | width = 250px | align = right }} The Sickos Guy has been adopted as an informal [[mascot]] by sports fans who take enjoyment in games involving struggling teams or unusual circumstances.
In 2020, [[college football]] fans created the '''Sickos Committee''' [[Twitter]] account from a [[Discord]] server for sportswriters. The account focuses on highlighting games where both teams perform poorly, as well as other unconventional or humorous moments in college football, [[Canadian football]], and various niche sports.<ref>{{cite Twitter profile|SickosCommittee}}</ref> For example, its top game for Week 9 of the 2022 season featured [[Iowa Hawkeyes football|Iowa]], which had the lowest-ranked offense in the country, against [[Northwestern Wildcats football|Northwestern]], which had not won a game in the United States for over a year.<ref name="Sickos Committee NY Times">{{cite news|last=Auerbach|first=Nicole|url=https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/3736273/2022/10/28/sickos-committee-college-football-twitter/|title=How Sickos Committee became the internet's ultimate champion of ugly college football|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=October 28, 2022|access-date=October 26, 2025|url-access=subscription}}</ref> At the end of the season, Iowa was named the Committee's "national champion" for finishing 130th out of 131 teams in total offense, an honor marked by a fundraiser for a [[food bank]] in [[Iowa City, Iowa|Iowa City]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Howell|first=Michael|url=https://cbs2iowa.com/news/local/sickos-committee-raises-money-for-iowa-city-food-bank|title='Sickos Committee' raises money for Iowa City food bank|publisher=[[KGAN]]|date=December 26, 2022|access-date=October 26, 2025}}</ref>
During the [[2023 Quick Lane Bowl]], play-by-play announcer Connor Onion referenced the meme after a low-scoring 10–9 first half, remarking that the "Sickos Committee is out there saying, 'Ha ha ha... Yes!'".<ref>{{cite news|last=Bucholtz|first=Andrew|url=https://awfulannouncing.com/college-football/espn-connor-onion-sickos-committee-quick-lane-bowl.html|title=ESPN's Connor Onion shouts out Sickos Committee on Quick Lane Bowl call|publisher=[[Awful Announcing]]|date=December 26, 2023|access-date=October 26, 2025}}</ref>
The Committee frequently promotes [[MACtion]] (midweek Mid-American Conference games) and "Pac-12 After Dark" (late-night [[Pac-12 Conference]] games), both known for unpredictable and entertaining outcomes with low viewership.<ref>{{cite news|last=Marcello|first=Brandon|url=https://247sports.com/article/college-football-sickos-committee-175054533/|title=Meet the 'Sickos,' college football's loving, inclusive (and perverse) subculture|publisher=[[247Sports]]|date=November 11, 2021|access-date=October 26, 2025}}</ref> George Smith, who refers to himself as the Committee's commissioner, stated in 2022 that the group genuinely enjoy the sport for its unusual events and does not intend to mock teams or players.<ref name="Sickos Committee NY Times" /> Ward Sutton expressed support for the Committee's use of his character, provided it was not monetized.<ref name="Sickos Committee NY Times" />
The meme also gained popularity among fans of the [[Ottawa Senators]] during the [[2020–21 NHL season]], when the team was performing poorly. Supporters used the Sickos Guy as a symbol of ironic optimism, cheering for losses to improve the team's [[NHL entry draft]] lottery odds.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gold-Smith|first=Josh|url=https://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/2133343|title=Senators fans further embrace meme with 'Sickos' cutouts|publisher=[[Score Media and Gaming]]|date=March 24, 2021|access-date=October 26, 2025}}</ref> A Twitter user named Chris, credited with starting the '''Sens Sicko''' movement, described it as "a backwards way of cheering for the Sens" that made defeats enjoyable.<ref name="Sens Sicko">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/2415623/2021/03/02/the-sens-sicko-movement-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/|title=The Sens Sicko movement? Here's everything you need to know|agency=[[The Athletic]]|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=March 2, 2021|access-date=October 26, 2025|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The Senators organization embraced the meme by selling Sickos-themed cardboard cutouts for games held [[Behind closed doors (sport)|without spectators]] due to [[Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ice hockey|COVID-19 restrictions]] and by playing a parody of the song "[[Say I Yi Yi]]" with Sickos-themed lyrics at home games.<ref name="Sens Sicko" /><ref>{{cite news|last=Pickens|first=Pat|url=https://www.nhl.com/news/senators-show-off-sens-sickos-fan-cutouts-322495728|title=Senators show off 'Sens Sickos' fan cutouts for home games|publisher=[[National Hockey League]]|date=March 13, 2021|access-date=October 26, 2025}}</ref> Following a March 14, 2021 victory over the [[Toronto Maple Leafs]], head coach [[D. J. Smith (ice hockey)|D. J. Smith]] referenced the trend, saying, "I love the passion of the fans, and I gotta say to them: 'YES... HA HA HA... YES!'"<ref name="Sickos have invaded">{{cite news|last=Wyshynski|first=Greg|url=https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/31078206/why-sickos-invaded-ottawa-senators-games|title=Why 'Sickos' have invaded Ottawa Senators games|website=[[ESPN.com]]|publisher=[[ESPN]]|date=March 17, 2021|access-date=October 26, 2025}}</ref>
Fans of American professional wrestling promotion [[All Elite Wrestling]] are regularly referred to as ‘Sickos’, which started in direct reference to this meme; with AEW owner and head booker [[Tony Khan]]’s head in place of the ‘Sickos guy’.
==References== <references />
==External links== * {{Know Your Meme|sickos-haha-yes|Sickos Haha Yes}}
{{The Onion}}
[[Category:2015 comics debuts]] [[Category:2010s fads and trends]] [[Category:2020s fads and trends]] [[Category:American comics]] [[Category:Comics characters introduced in 2015]] [[Category:Internet memes introduced in 2015]] [[Category:The Onion]]