I Reject My Humanity, JoJo

The quote “I Reject My Humanity, JoJo,” also known as “I’m Throwing Away My Humanity, JoJo,” refers to a memorable moment by JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime series character Dio Brando when revealing that he had decided to become a vampire.

Online, a manga panel and a still image paired with the quote has been used as reactions.

The meme was brought to life in March 1987 in an episode of the manga series “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” titled “The Stone Mask, Part 4”.

Within the episode one of the main characters, called Dio Brando, decides that he wants to be a vampire. He does so by ridding himself of the stone mask and quoting “I reject my humanity”.

Years later in October 2012 the anime adaptation of the manga was released and in the third installment titled “Youth with Dio” the legendary quote was brought back to life and has since turned into an internet hit.

The first instance of the “I Reject My Humanity, JoJo” meme is unknown.

Prior to September 2016, memes based on a black-and-white manga panel of Dio Brando saying the quote and holding the mask saw large spread in Japan, with multiple instances of memes in which the mask was replaced with other objects posted online.

In September 2016, Tumblr user billys-silly-thrillies used the meme to respond to an image of a mask submitted by another user.

In the following years, the meme gained further popularity, especially on Tumblr and Reddit.

• Know Your Meme – I Reject My Humanity, JoJo