Esther Verkest's Help Sign

About

Esther Verkest's Help Sign refers to an exploitable webcomic in which the Flemish comic character Esther Verkest writes various messages in the sand to attract rescuers while stranded on a desert island.

Origin

On April 9th, 2016, the Esther Verkest Facebook^[1] page posted a comic in which Verkest arrives on a desert island and makes a "Help" sign out of rocks, which fails to attract the attention of planes flying by. After changing the sign to "Slut," multiple rescuers arrive to her aid (shown below).

Spread

On April 29th, 2016, the comic was reposted to FunnyJunk^[3] by user hellschwarz. In the comment section, several photoshopped variations were submitted (shown below).

On April 17th, 2017, Redditor kiwifucker submitted a version of the comic in which the woman spells out the word "Trap" to /r/4chan,^[7] where it received upwards of 11,900 points (91% upvoted) and 350 comments (shown below, left). On April 20th, journalist Ian Miles Cheong tweeted a version of the comic referencing Shia Labeouf's "He Will Not Divide Us" art project (shown below, right).^[4]

On August 9th, Redditor CtrlAltDelish submitted a Bobs and Vegana-themed version of the comic to /r/dankmemes,^[2] where it gathered upwards of 1,400 points (98% upvoted) within 12 hours. Meanwhile, two posts about the exploitable comic were submitted to /r/MemeEconomy.^[5][6]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References