Because it's such a simple, and almost intuitive design it's extremely likely that thousands of people independently figured it out on their own. I'd be amazed if it didn't have many, many origin points.
I used to draw the s in third grade all the time and I got suspended for drawing "gang signs". I lived in rural Arkansas at the time. Never figured out which gang the teachers thought it represented
That's how shit was in Wyoming. You couldn't wear a Pittsburgh Pirates hat or shirt at one school I went to because gang members in other fucking states wore it. Only gangs with any real presence here are a few biker clubs.
Wretched wretch I drew some stick man kicking the shit out of eachother with rocket launchers and swords and shit and got suspended for being a fucking maniac I guess?
Brazilian here! Back when I was 6 or 8 I remember seeing one of these things in a notebook thinking it was some 'hood shit' from the USA or something of the sort
The first time I encountered the s was when a group of my middle school teachers made everyone draw it to see who's s best matched the bathroom graffiti
This reminds me of the time in the third grade a few students including myself made a one-to-one copy of a dumb word (forgot what it said) because the teacher wanted to know who wrote the dumb word. We made a copy of it one-to-one and then the teacher just dropped it because he realized no one was going to 'fess up for who wrote the dumb word lmao
theory: nobody invented it and it's a representation of convergent culture IE different people all over the world came up with it separately while doodling random things
Next he can make a video about that mysterious shape known as the 3d cube that everyone and their brother draws. It's just a shape on the edge of common enough to mildly interesting. Or maybe he can do a bunch noise about the first person to draw a circle with a dot in the center.
I worry for the day the super S gets it's own emoji. I think it's cool have pointless memes like these. It's undying connection to past humans. Something we all know.
I think the appeal is that the Super S is hard to do on the internet. There's no emoji or alt-code. Only pictures. So it is still mostly transferred in real life. Meaning you still need to learn how to do it.
It's almost Lovecraftian in a way. Unknown, and humans don't know the real meaning of it. It's just there. Not evil, not good. It's just is. It's just S.
Bruh why do all kids around the world play tag? Why do so many religions think here was a great flood? Who decided to squeeze cow udders and drink it? These are questions that will never be answered but continue to be asked.
i am convinced that if a multiverse truly exists, that somewhere, in a universe so alien to us that parallel lines may not be a mathematical concept, this S still exists in some form or another. i tried to investigate years back, and the oldest origin i could find was in 1941 iran, where a friends grandmother was taught it by, you guessed it, her older sister.
Suzuki (and other similar) symbols: Oh it's just a passing resemblance! "Spanish" S: Totally, absolutely, most definitely. Am I missing something, or is this just a huge confirmation bias?
I think it's less the way it looks and more the way it's constructed. The Spanish S is made from connecting the corresponding points on those little diamonds together. It looks different, but it's the same core concept of "schoolkids doodling a few lines/shapes then connecting it into the letter S because it looks cool".
As it was also mentioned in the video, it was likely simplified over time. So it did not look like the "Super S" at first but would eventually get simplified to that since people would get tired of how complicated it seems to be to make the Spanish S.
You are also pronouncing stussy wrong...it’s pronounced “stoosy”, but I mean it’s really hard to make sure you say the words correctly...*studies theories for hours/cannot pronounce stussy.
I've drawn this "S" back in school too. The funny thing is, I came up with it myself, but then I began to notice that it is found virtually everywhere so I was kind of disappointed I wasn't the original creator lol. Either it was stuck in my subconscious the first time I've drawn it or the symbol is so simple and self-explanatory that every once in a while someone reinvents it independently from others.
Correction, 50,056 years ago. I was there to see it, the aliens had abducted me and sent me back undercover as a 14 year old labor worker, they have picked me up every year to change small things about me so that i fit in, i am an alien, and i am here to study mankind and its special ways of ruling this planet. Soon enough we will be taking over this world but for now... we continue the super s project.
I was drawing this on my school books back in the mid 1980s and my older brothers were drawing it even in the 1970s. Nice to know this is a worldwide phenomenon and not just limited to school graffiti in Scotland 😎
Jaqen H'ghar no day ruined, but throughout my time reading comments I get annoyed when people reply the same thing to the same comment. It happened to me the other day and it was annoying getting like 6 people trying to give me an answer that I got from one
From the moment the invaders arrived, breathed our air, saw what was dank, they were doomed. They were undone, destroyed, after all of man's weapons and devices had failed, by the tiniest creatures that God and his wisdom, shitpost upon this earth. At the toll of a billion bants, man had earned his immunity, his right to survive among this planet's infinite pisstakes. And that right is ours against all challenges, for memes do not live nor die in vein.
Man may not be the brighest, nor the strongest creature within the infinite cosmos but the most emotionally deft able to take and give shit that would crumble the moral of the most upstanding aliens ego.
Ahhh yes the S. The original meme. Just like it's shape it has no start and no end. I saw it in a sharpie graffiti book and instantly had knowledge of how it was drawn.
I remeber showing the S to my mother and she was like Hey i remeber this And then drew me the Smile thingy Then my father came along and was like "Hey is that the S I remember drawing it a lot when i was younger" My father is was born in 1955 and my mother around the 70s I am also from greece And that thing was hella popular in here I actually STILL see it drawn in my little cousins textbook I actually only recently learned that it was popular in other countries Oh btw i was born in 2000 Also even tho Greece doesnt use the latin alphabet English is a language that is tought in our schools from a very early age And we also have this letter "ς" but most people write like the english S Even my father Who let me remind you was born in 1955 Anyway that all i have to say Great video mate
Latvia- All the criminal kids who now are dead/in jail drew this on their snapbacks. I'm pretty sure it was a gang sign here. First time i saw it was on a Newyork Yankees cap in the halls. Second one was at a skatepark on a quarterpipe. Since then, every single addict infested staircase or a bar toilet has these all over town right next to a poorly drawn swastika. How does one draw this and fail to draw four L's escapes me.
@James it's 1990's Russia. If you check our news, basically every month we get a tally of how many millions of tax payer money were stolen through shell companies (Govt. Owned. Ofc.) You wont survive three months living like a law abiding citizen.
@@dundun8640 my family came from Lithuania and it makes me sad when I see videos of the modern day Baltic states. Sometimes I wonder what the countries would have been like if Russia never took over or even if Germany won ww2. My family were successful farmers who had their land seized and I've gotten into arguments with pro communist teenagers who deny that such land grabs ever took place
I went to school on Spain, and later moved to Uruguay the mighty S was in both places. I learned it in Spain but in Uruguay I saw it drawn or even carved into desks it is truly a mistery
God gave us the S so that in times of great crisis we could all unite under one symbol. If a strange person approaches you and reveals to you the S, odds are they are trustworthy. And even if they're not you know they're down with the sickness so it's all good.
For what it's worth, my wife is Yemeni and grew up in both Egypt and Yemen and she told me she has no clue about this symbol and never heard about it until I mentioned it. I grew up in Virginia and remember my friends and I drawing it in elementary school.
Now since Mobias Strips date back over 4000 years, is it possible that the S is a simple remnant of an ancient era. Like maybe viking children drew it almost as a religious thing, then it seeps into England, then expands has expected. Or perhaps it's even a religious symbol from a religion too old to be remembered: simple to create, easy to spread, could be meaningful. Just like a cross, Star of David, Yin Yang, or Moon and star are
i like this theory. it's like its some strange lost symbol that persists through our subconcious. maybe it sustains some ancient god through our indirect but constant worship of its symbol. its lovecraftian sounding.
It could even be universal. Rather than having a single origin point, it could have originated in all cultures separately, kind of like a certain symbol which was ruined by Hitler. By the way, f*ck Hitler.
I graduated high school in ‘72, yes 1972, and we were drawing these “8’s” back then. I remember we called them 8 back then, somewhere along the way they became an S
I'm from USA and I seen my friend drawing it in elementary school so I copied him and we got in trouble for drawing it because the teachers said it was a gang symbol. Edit: I am now 22 and I was 6 when I first drew it.
The reason why I said USA and not state is because if you couldn't tell a lot of people watching/commenting on this video are from different parts of the world. So if I said what state most likely nobody would know where I was talking about unless they are already from/familiar with USA.
@@demp6025 most places are small. You cant classify the US as one place/thing. Regional at best. Ive literally never seen anyome from the US say that. Only ppl outside the states say "from the USA"
The first time I ever recall seeing this symbol is some classmates drawing it back in Grade 3, I recall the teachers not being happy with students drawing them and this encouraged students to draw it even more. I do recall it having a unique nickname back in Grade 3 in the mid 90s, but that was so long ago that it completely escapes me.
I remember my Mom and my Uncle seeing the 'S' on my school books or pencil cases, and saying something like, "Oh. You're drawing the 'S', now." They had also drawn it in their youth. I remember being shown it in school, around 1995, I was 10.
I remember the “ Suzuki s” being everywhere, even being drawn on bench’s at our train station. It’s an enigma, nobody knows where it’s from and nobody will know
Wait! Multiple people came up with it independently and simultaneously...and once u r made aware of it u have the uncontrollable urge to draw it. IT MUST BE THE SYMBOL OF AN ELDER GOD!
It is very easy to draw on a grid paper, so people individually discover it, when just drawing random patterns on paper. That's it. Oh not happy with this one? How about this one: We live in a computer simulation, used to study social interaction of early human civilization. The S is actually the logo of the company running the simulation.
All kinds of things went around quite quickly without the internet. There were all kinds of rumors, usually about some rock star, that would spread across the entire country (USA) like wild fire. Anyone remember the one about Rod Stewart? I've always been fascinated by how info can spread so fast without being broadcast over the air or printed in national publications, just simple word of mouth. The telephone probably played a significant role.
When I first learned how to draw this I just thought it was something one of my friends figured out, the older I got the more I realized how timeless and universal this symbol is
I remember drawing this symbol in middle school. The reason I did it was because I couldn't draw at all, but when I drew this everybody liked it. And as far as I can remember that was why everybody else did it as well. It looked nice and it was easy
Its kind of like the "floor is lava" game, or that kid who says "my mom says im not allowed to get wet" in the middle of summer when you're playing with the sprinkler or a super-soaker. Its must be built into our DNA by now.
at school back then, our "S" has the 4 side-most lines (top and bottom) modified into a curve so that a spike can be placed, making it look more badass and emo.
The spontaneous development of the "S" in so many different cultures reminds me of Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. That there are certain signs and symbols inherent to the human condition and are merely reinterpreted through the lens of whichever culture in which they manifest.
I remember in fourth grade they had to call the police because almost every boy had it drawn on their note book and one of the teachers claimed it was anti-Semitic and we were all investigated As a child I was terrified because I didn't even know why I was drawing it I just thought it was cool.
Classmates and I started drawing this "S" back in late 90's early 00's. Most of us called it the "skater S" ("skater" culture hit my school hard, along with baggy pants, Blink 182 and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater), the "hip hop S" or "graffiti S". I can't recall who drew it first*, but suddenly fucking everybody knew about it and drew it on everything, clothes, notebooks, walls, bathrooms etc. Interesting phenomenon. *in our school.
Same here, the kids at my school that drew it were almost all heavily into skater culture. I thought it was weird (then again, me being into metal produced many imitations of the "bundle of sticks" looking band logos).
Am I the only person who understood this (along with only 69 others)... Odd how kilroy got forgotten despite being drawn after combat near the fronts of WW2 by many soldiers.
@@wallabyparty5443 I included that in my comment, but considering the video has about 232 k views I was suprised to not even see 100 likes on the comment.
I enjoy the Spanish S theory, it is a similar almost meditative doodle, you draw 3 Xs vertically with space between, make a diamond with the X, then connect the top/middle/bottom points to make the S loops, then make a point with the ends and add a small circle
I remember it being drawn in school and not really getting it, other kids would show me how it's drawn but I wouldn't get WHY it was being drawn. Like it needed some sort of reason in my kid brain, I was shocked that it's still a thing kids draw. Perhaps older kids show younger kids and the cycle never breaks.
I remember when my friend first showed the S symbol to me. He would say "What is 3+3?" I would say 6 but he would shut me down and say "No, 3+3=S" then he would show me the process, It blew me away.
I have a theory about where it came from: it’s the symbol of a future religion, or cult, that use time machines to spread their religion to children to make it feel more mysterious
I like to think this is how information spread before language. Just cool cave drawings that had no agreed upon universal meetings but still inspired those who saw them to recreate them and spread them further. Attaching their own emotional meaning to them.
Very suprised its a world wide thing, here in austria when i was going to school, everyone was drawing it too. I thought it had something to do with hip hop since it was pretty big back than, but i guess not.
@@Rolonok Ah des weiß ich jetzt leider nicht mehr, is doch schon wieder so lang aus. Aber des Skater S kommt mir schon bekannt vor, muss da mal mein Kumpel fragen.^^
elementary for me was in the 90's, south alleghany, for me this was the first time (or the first physical example) of picturing something in my head then drawing it out knowing the whole time, what it was going to be, there is some Freudian term for that kind of mental process. its like the day we all realize colors, shapes, numbers ,and the alphabet and etc...it just has something to do with our brains developing and being able to function on their own ( growing up)
Occam's Razor is "if you have two, equally viable ideas, methods or theories, use the simpler one." Nothing about simpler being better in the sense of being more accurate or correct, just more useful as it is quicker and easier to use.
Andrews Animations Doesn’t seem far off. I’m sure there’s a better example- But considering how when people do DMT, hundreds of thousands of people regardless of cultural brainwashing or location have reported coming into contact with the same “entities” and seeming the same things. Yes that is a substance, but it proves that such a thing is theoretically possible.
Funny how I never drew it, and I recall seeing it *once* before this video. And I can't tell if that was real, I have déjà vu 3 times a day. I think. Was that déjà vu real? I can't tell. It might have been déjà vu.
This symbol is REALLY universal. I come from an unrecognised tiny country, pretty underdeveloped. Yet it is often drawn here too. To this day children still draw it.
My father said he used to draw it too. So the S existed in Turkey in the 70's. I think my elementary teacher taught me the S in early 00's. I did many variations like braids and swirls. A pre-internet meme which spread worldwide and still kicking. That's like the Black Death of Memes.
My mother too.She told me that all the girls in her school drew it.My sister remembers it too.It probably is a stylized variation of the Suzuki S, but it seems to have been spread by foreign exchange programs and been forgotten in it's country of origin,Turkey, by the start of the 2010's.
I scroll down to see if there were sources, not expecting to see them, but did it anyways, and lo and behold you sourced everything. that's a sub from me my dude.
Same. I think the teachers were just sick of people drawing it on the bathroom walls, even though they know full well they used to draw it everywhere, too.
Back in the mid 2000s in Puerto Rico, I was given a sticker of an organization's logo. That logo had the Cool S with the slogan of "Somos Iguales," meaning "we"re all the same" from an organization in Puerto Rico called "Ser," whose mission is to provide services to people who have disabilities. Then, the symbol became popular. All of my classmates and I (in elementary school) started drawing on the board and on our notebooks. I don't understand why it became popular.
I remember learning that, to draw it right you do different parts in order then connect them. It made it fun to draw it and show people how to do it. I wonder if, if you go to these schools, they always settle on similar rules for how to draw it. When I learned it was three vertical parallel lines then you draw the diagonals.
My brother, Steven, once had a giant one of those on his bedroom wall. It was made out of over a hundred SoBe lids. Yes, it was the early 2000s, why do you ask?
Little did we know as kids, but we we've signed a demonic pact with Satan by creating his unholy-pointy S pentagram. Kinda similar to that Full Metal Alchemist show, except rather than blowing our siblings up we're blowing Satan in hell forever now lol.
I remember kids in my school calling it the "Shrek S" when that movie came out because of how it looked similar to the giant S used on promotional posters
when I first heard of it back in the day I was told it was some gang related thing and when I saw someone sporty it I always told them " hope you don't get shot " just to mess with them 😂😂
Dude me and my friends used to draw that *S* in elementary school in the mid 90's when ever we skate in Panamá city, Panama. Then I moved to Washington DC in middle school and that's the first thing I saw in the bathroom and in that moment I knew I was right at home. \m/
In elementary school we all drew this. I remember being taught it by a student, and as an artist, I taught others. Taoist Ying-Yang's were popular as well. We would also make our own book-marks by coloring this round-rectangle indent on a pencil case lid with crayola markers and then fill the indent with glue, let it "cook" until the next day and we would compare our book-marks. We did this because it was easy. The S was nicknamed the Gangster S and as such it was later banned for being gang affiliated, and the book-marks were banned as well probably because some teacher was not paying attention to the doings of her students and ended up getting glue on her hands or spilling it. Strangely the Ying Yang was still allowed but it was never as popular.
I would argue it's the Superman symbol, that inspired the global phenomenon, being that the S symbol of Superman is one of the most well known images on earth, and boys tend to draw these. So, subconsciously we as boys doodled an S, and I remember struggling drawing the actual Superman S, and boys very likely created it off the subculture of S that Superman's image created and there for the energy of the S holds Superman's idea, but just a separate new and doodle culture. I always saw it as a cool S but also holding a superman energy, and being it's own.
I just called it The S back in elementary school. It was striking to see it scribbled on my friend's paper after not seeing or thinking of it for years.
I think the most likely answer is that the cool s was independently invented in various different contexts because of how simple it is. Some people were drawing esses, some were drawing eights or infinity symbols, but it all filters down through the course of human life and history into one symbol that summarizes them all: the cool s. Alternatively, it's a memetic bug that something outside the human race has inflicted on us, and it manifests in children like belief in the tooth fairy. But let's be real that's not it.
Hmmmm its possible although it would be strange if it was not also found in the ancient world like other universal symbols such as the "swastika". I must admit, this shit is creepy as hell.
I used to draw the S at school, never heard of it previously it just felt natural as i had grid style copybooks but with time i learned that the "super S" is such a common simple design that several people also drew it. Another piece of tidbit that i find amusing about it is that if you think of it as a pattern instead of an S then you will find it on several pieces of crafts n stuff, from knitting to metal it can be found.
This symbol is embossed on a secluded door on the bottom floor of the BMO building in toronto canada. No idea why, but it's not displayed as just random graffiti.
