If you are ever right in an online argument, there is really only one way to show it: GigaChad.
Everybody knows that if you post GigaChad your opinion is correct. No combination of facts, logic, or rhetoric can stand up in the face of you posting that fateful, supremely masculine, yoked, black-and-white image of the most masculine man in the world.
Another answer is Ernest Khalimov, according to the Instagram account berlin.1969, which presents itself as the Gigachad himself.
While Khalimov has become the public, chiseled face of GigaChad, he probably isn’t him.
He may not even be real at all.
GigaChad meme history:
The image that became known as GigaChad is the fruit of an art project called sleekntears, created by the artist Krista Sudmalis.
In that series, Adonis-like male and female bodies are enhanced to mythological proportions in black-and-white photos under soft, diffuse, shadow-heavy lighting.
Sudmalis was taking GigaChad-like photos and posting them on the art project’s Facebook page as early as October 2016.
At the time, the person wasn’t known as GigaChad. The name actually comes from a more odious internet forum.
GigaChad got his name from a 4chan post in October 2017, according to KnowYourMeme.
“Years of Bogdanoff research into genetic augmentation has finally yielded fruit,” read the post, referencing the Bogdanoff twins, a pair of French celebrity brothers who became memed on themselves for their extreme, plastic surgery-altered features. “Behold, the Gigachad. The perfect human specimen destined to lead us against the reptilians. We are all witness.”
The meme takes the Chad moniker, that of a big dumb confident man, and ramps it up by a billion (giga).
Despite the berlin.1969 Instagram account acknowledging the meme and becoming the public face of it, including by posting images in collaboration with sleekntears, it’s unlikely that he is a real person.
Evidence for that idea (aside from his cartoonish, bicycle-pumped muscles) includes the fact that there are no behind-the-scenes photos of GigaChad’s model like there are for the other models in Sudmalis’ series, pointed out an article by Dude Products.
Artur Farad, a fitness model, is a likely candidate for being the real inspiration. A look on his Instagram account shows he does bear a real resemblance to the impossibly square-jawed model. Farad has played into the idea himself by captioning some of the photos #gigachad.
Farad has also posted images of himself with the Sleek’n’Tears brand stamp on his chest, suggesting either at least a resemblance or a direct inspiration for GigaChad.
Riffing on the idea that posting an image of GigaChad automatically makes everything you say correct, a smiling devil-may-care version of the meme was integrated into the popular Average Fan vs. Average Enjoyer meme format starting in 2021, according to KnowYourMeme.
One viral video got over a half-million views using the template to sarcastically contrast evidence-deploying nerds to gut-feeling trusting chads.
Another variation of the meme has GigaChad ironically reacting to country names like Georgia, Turkey, or Hungary by acting like they aren’t the names of countries but are other places, nouns, or adjectives. Think it’s stupid? GigaChad doesn’t, and you’re a beta if you do.
That’s where a lot of the GigaChad memes land these days.
GigaChad is laid back and honestly kind of nice. He expresses a viewpoint where it’s less important to get things exactly right, and more important to be confident and take it easy.
After GigaChad initially went viral, berlin.1969 responded to the attention with a friendly post thanking his fans for the attention.
“Must admit I’m shocked that there are so many of you and that you are not negative … I have nothing to say to you, probably because I look much more interesting from your words,” he wrote. “It’s very flattering and overshadows my commonness. Thanks for the kind words. Thank you for the positive energy. don’t doubt guys I mentally return it to you. Take your time and keep calm. Take care of yourself and your loved ones … Yours faithfully. Average person.”
“gigachad is real, and humble and he seems like a pretty nice guy. he’s an actual Chad,” wrote one redditor.
Because anybody can post GigaChad, all of us can adopt his attitude.
To be a real GigaChad just be positive and trust in yourself. And maybe also build and maintain hypertrophic musculature characterized by prominent deltoids, pectorals, and biceps, as well as ample striation and vascularity maintained by a hyper-low subcutaneous fat percentage, and also work hard to build defined serratus anterior muscles, and maybe also bulk and cut heavily after engaging in multiple anabolic cycles.
Then you, too, can be GigaChad.
Editor’s note: This article is regularly updated for relevance.
