It’s one of the internet’s favorite sagas. In 2015, a man named Asif Raza coldly announced in a Facebook post that he dumping his best friend Mudasir and replacing him with a man named Salman. The post included a photo of Asif and Salman shaking hands and looking intently at the camera, with two inset photos of Mudasir with giant X’s through them. “Friendship ended with Mudasir,” the post declared. “Now Salman is my best friend.” Asif’s post quickly went viral and turned into a meme.
A month after the original post, Asif posted a new graphic to his Facebook. This one featured a photo of him shaking hands with his old buddy Mudasir. “Friendship regain with Mudasir,” the multicolored text in the new image read, “Now Mudasir & Salman both are my best friends.”
Asif elaborated on the reunion in his post:
Your ego seeks conflict; it loves nothing better than to win battles for you, sadly as it wins, you often lose respect and friendships. If you wish problems to persist, keep blaming everyone and everything but yourself, for he who persistently blames and criticise only fans the flames of hatred and controversy…….so from now Mudasir Ismail Ahmed and SAlman AHmad Naqash both are my best friends …..
So candid and real, right? It was like watching two characters from a reality TV show fight and then make up. Well, now there’s a plot twist. What if Asif disavowed his friendship with Mudasir again? Would the world survive?
A graphic posted to Twitter on Friday showed Asif and Salman hanging out without Mudasir. Underneath the image, the text reads: “Mudasir u can cry alone now.”
https://twitter.com/haarleyquin/status/893391448892112900
Those who followed the complicated friendship since its inception were deeply affected.
BLOWN https://t.co/WAQWsoDp3k
— leon. (@itsleonbabey) August 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/kinsexual/status/893529594485231616
sad day for Team Mudasir
— erectus ejectus (@DanielBrian) August 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/asad_j112/status/893552557682851840
saddest story 2017 https://t.co/jkBSDxlR3S
— Disfrutón. (@Dazweg) August 4, 2017
Two years later, and the internet still loves this long-running joke. We don’t know if Mudasir still counts Asif and Salman as friends. Maybe none of them were ever friends. Maybe nothing we read on the internet is real.
But people on Twitter offered some suggestions for this hypothetical friendship.
https://twitter.com/treelesbian/status/893545709546471424
Seriously, if you have toxic friends who make personal announcements via poorly designed graphics, get out now. Hear that, Mudasir?