Does waiting exist in real life. Toy Zhdun, why did I wait for you? Anti-under-review of a worthless purchase
About the history of the famous meme, about its creator, girlfriend and Instagram profile
When I first saw a photo with this incomprehensible creature, I thought it was a frame from some old movie. For some reason, I was sure that in the picture - a living person, dressed in a ridiculous suit. Too realistic were the hands sticking out of the "suit".
Who would have thought that the story of Zhdun, as he was dubbed in the Russian Internet community, is much more interesting.
It turned out that this character is closely connected with medicine. Of course, as a medical copywriter, I could not get past the topic.
So, meet Zhdun, aka Pochekun, aka Homunculus loxodontus.
A Brief History of Waiting
This story began in Holland. Where else, if not in a country where such a large range of means is legalized to achieve the peak of creative inspiration.
In the spring of 2016, the young artist Margriet van Brevoort received a grant from the Leiden University Hospital in the Netherlands to create a sculpture that would be presented at the thematic exhibition "life science".
Initially, the idea was to depict something related to research, procedures. In search of inspiration, Margrit wandered the corridors and observed the patients.
The artist saw many patients in a state of expectation. For example, in an ophthalmological clinic, elderly people with cloudy eyes were sitting and meekly waiting for their diagnosis.
Margrit decided to abandon the "scientific" theme and embody a state of humble expectation in sculpture. This is how the character Homunculus loxodontus appeared, which brought its creator an audience award at the exhibition.
Who invented Zhdun?
A man with a turtle head, a tourist boy with deer antlers, a rat with a seductive female body in a BDSM outfit, slugs with butterfly and dragonfly wings - the hyper-realistic and at the same time fantastic sculptures by the creator of Zhdun seem to be alive.
The girl graduated from art school quite recently - in 2013. At first she was engaged in paintings, but then she realized that the plane of the canvas limits her creativity. Working with volume is much more interesting. The artist who created Zhdun managed to sell only two sculptures. The second was Homunculus loxodontus itself.
What kind of animal is this waiting?
The name Homunculus loxodontus is Latin, it can be translated as "elephant man" or "elephant man". Actually, under this name the Dutch know this character. Zhdun is an exclusively Russian term.
The creature Zhdun received its head from a sea elephant. Hands are clearly human, folded into a “lock”, as people usually do in a state of expectation. The body is not entirely clear. It is said to be taken from a larva, but I believe that the artist made it so full and shapeless in order to better convey the emotions of the character.
In my opinion, the image of Zhdun came out very expressive. Sweet and creepy at the same time, in the eyes - hope and humility. It's hard to get past this. Selfie guaranteed. By the way, the elephant man has no legs.
Where is Zhdun?
The most recent information that I found about the place of residence of this creature dates back to February 2017.
Now Zhdun is in Holland, at the hospital that sponsored his creation - Leiden University Medical Center, in the Netherlands. The hospital has a special room for sculptures, where the elephant man has many neighbors, also with an unusual appearance.
What is Zhdun made of?
I dug up an interview that Zhdun's "mother" gave to Arguments and Facts. There she reveals that Loxodontus is made of epoxy and plastic. If you mix these two materials, you get something like plastic.
And in the photo, where Zhdun has not yet been completed, you can see that inside it is almost empty. So it's not very heavy.
Where did the Zhdun meme come from?
Margriet van Brevoort did not expect that her creation with the head of a sea elephant would bring her so much fame. And I certainly could not think that Homunculus loxodontus would become popular in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. In Holland, Zhdun did not make so much noise, and most residents of other European countries did not know about this masterpiece at all.
So how did the Zhdun memes get into Russia?
In an interview with the Russian service of the BBC, the artist spoke about how a woman from Russia visited Leiden in the winter of 2017, took a photo of Zhdun and posted it on the Pikabu website. The users of the popular resource were immediately "hooked" by the unusual appearance of the elephant man, and then it went like a snowball.
Today, the Internet meme Zhdun appears before us in dozens of different images. He is the hero of famous paintings, the best friend of politicians and other memes, soaking epic phrases like “I pressed something ...”
However, jokes with Zhdun are limited not only to the fruits of photomontage and demotivators. The meme has become so popular that craftsmen have appeared who make their loxodonts from felt, plush, and crochet from yarn. And such souvenirs are bought for good money.
Why Zhdun?
What does Zhdun mean? This name is exclusively Russian. Let me remind you that in the homeland of the character they don’t call it that.
In the vastness of Runet, you can find references to the fact that the waiting people are characters from the book "The Wizard of the Emerald City". I don’t remember that there were such people there, but I don’t see the point in rereading a children’s book (there are several volumes) to check.
In any case, the Russian-language name of the elephant man turned out to be very short, capacious and accurate. Zhdun is the one who waits. In his eyes - humility, hope and interest. I look at the pictures, look into the eyes of this creature, and for some reason I feel very sorry for him. Ah here is such I the entire oxytocin.
In Ukraine, Zhdun is also called Pochekun. Whether there is a proper name in Kazakhstan, I don't know.
Why did the meme take root in Russia so much?
Dmitry Travin, a political scientist and professor at the European University in St. Petersburg, said that Zhdun is a symbol of Russia (before that, according to the political scientist, this position was held by Cheburashka).
The situation is very funny and revealing. Many symbols of Russia have already been invented, many of them are more beautiful, more leafy and give much more reason for pride. But the Audience Choice Award went to an awkward creature with an elephant's head, a flabby larva's body, and dutifully folded arms. You can't look without pity. It seems that Zhdun is telling us: “Well, it’s okay, I’ll endure a little more. Oh, it'll work out."
I think this is what resonated with the long-suffering Russian soul. We are used to standing in lines and waiting for better times.
Instagram Zhduna
Yes, Zhdun also has his own Instagram account. There you will find dozens of funny pictures.
Waiters in Russia
In Russia, their own Zhduny have already appeared. I found mention of two. One was installed in Chelyabinsk, in the photo zone of the Gorki shopping mall. It is made of concrete, and you can easily take a picture with it.
The Yakut master Mikhail Bopposov approached the creation of his Loxodont in a more creative way. He fashioned a sculpture out of dung.
Zhdun in Ukraine
Ukrainians (fraternal people, after all) were imbued with the image of Zhdun no less than Russians. In Ukraine, Loxodont became interested at the state level.
At the end of February 2017, Borislav Bereza, People's Deputy of Ukraine, brought a statuette of Zhdun to the Verkhovna Rada. Pochekun took a place of honor on the parliamentary platform. Bereza stated that the character symbolizes the expectations of the Ukrainian people.
The mayor's office of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro found a Dutch artist, got in touch with her and asked her to make a two-meter copy of the elephant man. If the negotiations are successful, the sculpture will be installed in the city center.
Waiter's girlfriend
Margrit van Brevort, apparently, decided not to stop at the creation of one Zhdun. Perhaps in the future, the Loxodont family will be replenished with new members, because not so long ago the artist posted a sketch with the elephant man's girlfriend on social networks.
Zhdunsha, as she was dubbed in RuNet, looks similar, but has a female breast and stands on crutches.
That, in fact, is all that I managed to find out about Zhdun. I hope you were interested. I think it's worth explaining a little why I touched on this topic on a blog about copywriting and marketing. It's just that I like to watch the life of such viral ideas and understand how they became viral. It has a lot to do with marketing.
Purposefully creating a meme that will “tear” the Internet community is a titanic task. Planning the fate of viral content is extremely difficult. Sometimes the most unexpected things pop up. Margrit did not set out to conquer the Runet, and was quite surprised by the reaction to her masterpiece.
And I wish for myself and you that not Zhdun, but some Delun-Achiever becomes a symbol of our life.
All the best and good luck! See you again.
And if you need a million dollar ideas from a marketing copywriter, be sure to contact me.
The Earth was attacked by Zhduny, at least Russia and Ukraine. We constantly notice these creepy amorphous creatures with sad eyes, either in line at the ATM, or at the bakery, or on a park bench, or in the company of famous people or on the coat of arms of the postal service, it seems that they crawled from the Internet.
Let's figure it out.
For the first time, a creature with the head of a sea elephant and the body of a fattened larva (in Latin called Homunculus loxodontus, which means Elephant Man) was seen in the lobby of the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
Without a doubt, the creature decided to heal - to catch a cold without clothes and hairline in February is absolutely no problem. The patient to this day languishes on a chair in the hall of that same hospital. At the moment, it has finally hardened and is presented to visitors as a product of art house culture, a work of art created in the annual competition held by the local art fund in the city of Leiden.
The authorship of the sculpture is attributed to the previously little-known twenty-six-year-old Dutch artist Margriet van Brevoort, whose collection already has enough of such aliens. It seems that the girl often contacts with representatives of other worlds. Although each of the readers can form their own opinion about the work of the young sculptor by visiting her facebook account.
Margrit admits that while thinking about the topic of the contest, which sounded like “Biology and Science”, she was inspired by the sight of a queue of patients waiting for their diagnoses to be announced. How lucky the sculpture is that the girl did not draw her inspiration from our lines of domestic clinics. Then Zhdun would hardly have turned out the way journalists describe him - “He is like a big cute lump of flesh that you want to hug and reassure!” Moreover, the sculpture is hard and rough to the touch, because it is made of plastic shavings on a binder epoxy component.
The girl decided to joke and the joke brought her unprecedented fame - last year the sculpture attracted a lot of tourists and became the most photographed attraction in the vicinity of Rotterdam. Although the author herself is extremely surprised by this noise that has risen around the seemingly uncomplicated sculpture.
Indeed, among the works of the sculptor there are more radical, provocative, so to speak, creative creations. But it seems that she is not against the surging popularity.
By the way, even the mayor's office of the former Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine) initiated negotiations with van Brevort on the establishment of a two-meter clone of the famous sculpture in the city center. Apparently, visa-free travel with Europe will wait!
The popularity of the “Zhdun” meme in the Russian segment of the Internet was launched by the Pikabu resource in January after a woman who came from Russia took a sculpture on her phone and posted it there. After that, the bluish flesh of the “trunk-bearer” was identified with just about anyone - both with an outdated accountant, far from scientific and technological achievements in the field of computer technology, and with the image of a peasant worker who relies on the principle “Do not touch - you will not break!”
In a word, Zhdun is everywhere where the difficult situation that has arisen is powerless against human immediacy and readiness to endure everyday hardships. Albeit with some confusion on his face. The abundance of memes only confirms the closeness of the collective image to the people, the relevance of its behavioral position.
Let's return to the young author, who, answering the question “Do you feel famous?” in an interview with the Russian BBC, she noted: “Not at all. Although I receive a lot of different messages from social networks. I now have enough subscribers to my accounts from Russia and Ukraine. People like my work, but this colossal attention starts to tire and it is difficult to cope with it alone. Fortunately, my father supports me, helps me deal with all this.”
The girl is bombarded with invitations from the cities of the post-Soviet space to come to visit and bring copies of the sensational sculpture in order to get to know her better. Well, let's wait!
Do you know who Homunculus Loxodontus is, aka Homunculus, aka Zhdun? How did it come about and what caused it? No? Then let's get to know him together.
Where did the waiting come from?
This character was born, or rather, was created in the provincial Dutch town of Leiden. Yes, the inhabitants of this particular place had the opportunity to see it first. Its creator was 26-year-old Margaret Van Breevoort, who graduated from the Utrecht School of Art in 2013.
It all started in 2016 with a traditional exhibition of young artists and sculptors, which is held every year during the spring period in the Leiden Bio Science Park. This event lasts 3 months. The girl decided to take part in it and presented her creation, which she called Homunculus Loxodontus.
Outwardly, this creature resembled a huge larva with the head of a sea elephant. The figure, somewhat reminiscent of a pear, expressed humility with the circumstances. His hands were human and were in a folded state on an immense torso. The eyes are so huge, black, black. They made it clear to others that their owner is a very friendly creature. To make it, Margaret spent 75 kg of gypsum. To make the sculpture durable and resistant to moisture, the young artist coated it with a layer of bleached wax, which she mixed with toluene. And to make Zhdun look realistic, the girl opened it with a special colored solution.
How did the Zhdun sculpture appear?
Everyone liked this sculpture very much, but there was no particular excitement around it. In early August, the exhibition ended, and this funny creature received the “People's Choice Award”. Further, the sculpture was sent to the LUMS Children's Medical Center. There she began to decorate the entrance of this institution, meeting and seeing off his little patients.
The management of the hospital, in order to reduce the nervous tension of the children who were treated in it, constantly came up with something interesting. For example, pools with small fish and turtles. Zhdun has become another way to distract kids from negative emotions.
What was the reason for the appearance of this unusual sculpture? And everything is quite simple. The hospital, which was located at the university in Leiden, became something like a grant for Margaret Van Breevoort. The girl did not want to be a debtor and promised to create an interesting sculpture for this medical institution. She thought about her idea for a very long time. And walking once again through the corridors of the hospital, she drew attention to all those sad and tired people who are languishing in a long line to the doctor in anticipation of their diagnosis. The girl decided that it was an interesting idea to express emotions, or rather, to show the humility of all these patients, with the help of sculpture. That's how this waiting character came into being.
3 days after the end of the exhibition, Margaret registered her rights as the author of this sculpture. And at the beginning of 2017, she had her first customer. The Belgian businessman wanted to have a personal Zhdun and asked the girl to make an exact copy of him.
This sculpture lurks different feelings and emotions. It can make you smile, or it can move you to tears.
What is a meme and how is it related to Marguerite Van Breevoort's sculpture?
First, let's figure out what the word meme means. So, this is a Greek word, and in translation it means phenomenal, unique, unique, one of a kind. It is also called a unit of cultural information that passes from one person to another. At the same time, it changes and has the ability to adapt to any reality. A meme is widely used to create original photographs or pictures, to which peculiar statements are added. People also use it to make it more interesting to communicate on the Internet. It allows you to briefly, but at the same time very correctly and in an original way, convey your thoughts to the person with whom you are talking.
Zhdun has become another meme on social networks. By the way, the sculpture of a strange creature got its name on the Internet. But, as it turns out, all this is not just and has a very deep implication. It is worth remembering at least the queues of the times of the Soviet Union. People stood for hours waiting to get what they wanted. And at the same time, their faces had a characteristic expression - depressing sadness and defiance in their eyes. Zhdun very accurately conveys all this. His deep black eyes, full of sadness and sadness, are about to cry from endless expectation. Nowadays, queues are also not uncommon: at the station for tickets, on the street for a bus, in a hospital for a ticket to a doctor for an appointment, etc.
Meme Zhdun in different life situations or how the sculpture of a strange creature became popular
Many users of the World Wide Web have noticed that the potential of this unusual sculpture has not yet been fully disclosed. They began to add funny inscriptions to the image of Zhdun, thus reflecting stereotypes about workers of different professions. The meme is especially popular, in which Zhdun acts as an accountant, which he does not understand at all either in computer programs or in the computer itself. Here he is a symbol of complete bewilderment, misunderstanding, puzzlement and confusion. There are so many interesting memes featuring this amazing creature. Let's look at some of them.
So, Zhdun as a conductor. The main attributes are: a bag hanging over the chest and tickets. The catchphrase is something like “we pass for fare, otherwise I’ll just get up from my seat ...”.
Zhdun in the role of a patient who came to see the doctor and timidly asks: "... what's wrong with me?".
The meme about the mother-in-law has also gained considerable popularity. This marvelous creation of a young artist got used to her role well and, folding her hands on her rather big tummy, so modestly and drawlingly: “Well, son-in-law, I’ll stay with you for a couple of weeks ...”.
Zhdun, with particular success, got used to the role of a watchman, who does not need anything else in life, if only the shift would end quickly.
Also, this giant larva with huge black eyes acted as a user who pressed something somewhere and everything suddenly disappeared somewhere. Or in the role of a glutton who opened the refrigerator door, and then does not remember anything.
Having tried himself in the role of a conductor, an accountant, a user, a patient, etc., having served a lot of all kinds of queues - both to the doctor, and for tickets, and much more, Zhdun moved to the paintings of the classics. He sat down on the bank in the role of Alyonushka, pretended to be Boyar Morozova. Especially successful was the masterpiece, in which Zhdun played the role of Mona Lisa and, thus, it turned out not “Gioconda”, but “Zhdukonda”.
The themes of satire and tragedy are also touched upon. For example, this wonderful larva acts as a Ukrainian with the flag of the European Union, who sits and waits for a visa-free regime at the airport. Thus expressed the reaction of the people to the empty promises of politicians. Or the same airport, the same Zhdun, but already in a turban. This is how Donald Trump's ban on the entry of refugees into America is ridiculed.
A meme is also popular, in which a pensioner sits at the screen of his TV and waits for his pension to be raised someday.
Zhdun is credited with the speech clichés of aunts with an incomprehensible age category, who just want to give you their free and, moreover, completely useless advice: “And I treated it with milk thistle.” Or those who are always looking for a way to lose weight, like: “Do you know a way to lose weight quickly?”
But the main calling of this cute creature with a trunk was politics. After all, there is nothing more to be expected from her. And people can only accept and wait for a miracle.
So we met with an interesting creation of a young Dutch artist Margaret Van Breevoort, whom Internet users called Zhdun. And now, if someone asks you who it is and how it appeared, then you can say with great confidence that this cute creature resembles a huge larva with the head of a sea elephant. It is very friendly and, taking part in all kinds of memes, can easily cheer up everyone.
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Photos and memes about Zhdun
In the photo (from right to left): Valentina Matvienko, Dmitry Medvdev, Zhdun
On the picture:
Internet meme "Waiting" - where, how and when did it appear
If sociologists all over the world had been told 10-15 years ago that they would have to study some pictures that people send to a friend via the Internet, they would certainly have been very surprised. "Internet? And what do we have to do with it?" Today, the memes that appear every day on the expanses of social networks represent an unplowed field for these specialists. What is one Zhdun worth - either a person, or an animal, or an insect, which in 2017 won the hearts of Runet users in a matter of days. Let's try to figure out where the Zhdun meme came from and what it is.
Fun comes from Holland
In the spring of 2016, a creative exhibition of sculptures opened in Leiden, the Netherlands. The gifted youth exhibited their work at the Leiden Bio Science Park for three months. Among the exhibitors was 26-year-old Magriet van Breevoort, who presented the world with a sculpture of Homunculus loxodontus, whose name roughly translates from Latin as "humanoid elephant." According to Magritte herself, the sculpture symbolizes the patients of the clinic, waiting for their turn to get an appointment with a doctor. Can we say that we answered the question of how and where Zhdun appeared? Definitely not, because the story of the meme called "Waiting" is much more interesting.
Despite the fact that the sculpture quickly gained popularity in the Netherlands and quickly became one of the most frequently photographed sights of the country, it was not known about it for a long time in Russia. Exactly as long as one of the users of the Pikabu site did not tell about it at the beginning of 2017. The phenomenon of the “finest hour” of the Zhdun meme in the CIS, which has not ended to this day, is rather difficult to explain. Mikhail Nikolaevich Zadornov, I would say that our legs grow out of our ability to laugh at ourselves: always waiting for something, not always quick, but definitely good-natured.
Procession to the masses
From Pikabu, where Zhdun came from, he quickly spread throughout the Runet. In addition to the original black and white photo of a sea lion sculpture with the body of a larva and human hands, social media users began to send each other homemade memes for all occasions. Waiting girls appeared “waiting for March 8”, Waiting mother-in-law (“Son-in-law, I’ll stay with you for a while until we get bored”), Waiting girls from the accounting department (“I pressed something and everything disappeared) and many other variations of the meme for all occasions.
The management of Vkontakte decided not to be Zhdun and use the "hype" from the new meme to the maximum - in the spring of 2017, the social network released a series of free stickers with this meme for its users. Communities of needlewomen began to crochet Zhdun figurines, and smart entrepreneurs began to produce Zhdun soft toys for children and adults.
Interesting Facts
Zhdun's sculptor, Magrit van Breevoort, is distinguished not only by his creative talent, but also by his excellent sense of humor. The LUMS Medical Center, at the entrance to which the sculpture is installed, specializes, among other things, in genetic research. This led Magritte to the idea of creating a kind of genetic hybrid that radiates goodness and expects good news.
Immediately after the end of the exhibition, where Homunculus loxodontus won the audience award, Magritte filed a patent for the sculpture, and already in early 2017 she received the first order to make a copy of it for a Belgian businessman.
The sculpture took 75 kilograms of gypsum, which was covered with a mixture of wax and toluene, and only then with paint.
Homunculus loxodontus, although the most famous architecture of the medical center in Leiden, is definitely not the first. It is a kind of tradition to place funny sculptures in the lobby of the center that cheer up adults and children and relieve tension before going to the doctor.
Three years since our baby was born and all soft toys, carpets and, if possible, pillows were removed from the house)) But then a freebie sale caught my eye, as always, and I, succumbing to the general love for the eternally waiting creature, could not resist and ordered it at an attractive price at that time. When I received the parcel at the post office, I didn’t feel much joy, because I didn’t want to think of why I needed it. There were sluggishly wandering thoughts that it was possible to put him in a car, delighting fellow travelers in the middle of a traffic jam, but in general there is still no answer to the question “what for”. There will be a small review about this useless toy, which will most likely convince you not to spend money on any garbage)))
I think that either the filler material in the photo is softer, allowing you to imitate fat, such as buckwheat or rice, or in the photo it’s just a much larger toy. Most likely the first option, because the pile in the photo is about the same length - about 1.5 - 2 mm.
From this follows the shape of the head. In the original, it has a greater bend from the back of the head to the nose. Or rather, she has it at all, which Zhdun, whom I received, cannot boast of. And hence the location of the eyes of the original below.
Zhdun's fingers are not even sausage fingers, like the original, but sausage fingers. I mean, very thick and so elegantly unable to cross, as the seller showed.
The height of the toy is not 22 cm, but about 20 cm. Although the lower part is round, it is quite easy to put it vertically. At first glance, the pile is very short, it even seems that it is not particularly there, but if you run your hand over it in the opposite direction - ruffle it, it turns out that it is quite long and fluffy. However, the upper material is likely to be cheaper. not as shiny and probably less soft than what was photographed by the store. There are no labels with a description of the composition or country of manufacture. Even though we all know where it was made))
I'm not sure that I would be more happy if the contents of the package corresponded to the description, but still the toy clearly loses to the picture. Therefore, if you have plush toys under glass in your house or in your car, you can take it for two bucks, but if you are not sure if you need Zhdun, I can say with confidence that no, you don’t need it))
P.S. Used when buying
