Yassification is more or less like a glow up — a really intense (and sometimes even grotesque) glow up. So, uh, not exactly a glow up glow up? It’s a meme so they’re meant to look funny, but some actually look gorgeous.
To “yassify” something, you pick out a photo of any pop culture icon — a celebrity or a fictional character, heck, even a historical figure would do — and you run it through FaceApp, an AI photo-editing application, until all the layers of beauty filters render their face almost unrecognizable under the intense glow up treatment. And voila, they’ve been yassified.
Here are some examples of photos that have been “yassified”:
the yassification of bella swan: pic.twitter.com/7gqHxh5Tor
— boots ! (@bootsthehouse23) November 13, 2021
The original double yassification pic.twitter.com/nG1j9969dQ
— 💭 (@pengelmagic) November 21, 2021
the yassification of the xehanort triplets pic.twitter.com/v4ukav3AQ5
— ethan winters (@enbypike) November 21, 2021
the yassification craze is literally my favorite internet phenom ever pic.twitter.com/TE99RpUIVS
— reid (@thereidfeed) November 15, 2021
Aside from yassifying icons with FaceApp, netizens also use the meme on pop culture icons who have been yassified in canon. People would post photos of pop culture icons who have had their own glow ups in their respective shows, games, or films, dubbing them “the original yassification.”
the yassification of bugs bunny pic.twitter.com/a2L1r5qtYd
— Looney Tunes (@LooneyTunes) November 16, 2021
https://twitter.com/gwendalupe/status/1461357902069833740?s=20
the original yassification pic.twitter.com/MQnwIe5aWD
— foggy’s legal assistant (@STEVEMILF) November 20, 2021
the original yassification pic.twitter.com/x6YJA08Vin
— 2000s (@PopCulture2000s) November 18, 2021
https://twitter.com/svkiro/status/1462074528696258565?s=20
https://twitter.com/sakutaoha/status/1461752094784999426?s=20
https://twitter.com/hexd0ll/status/1461432492054003713?s=20
The term “yass” has been going around in LGBTQ vernacular for over a decade and was further popularized by a video of a fan admiring Lady Gaga and by the phrase “yas queen,” which was often used by Ilana Glazer’s character on Comedy Central show Broad City.
According to Know Your Meme, the term “yassification” first popped up on Twitter in 2020, but the meme was popularized in November 2021.
The yassification meme has become so popular on Twitter that the account Yassify Bot was created. Yassify Bot regularly churns out yassified photos of various pop culture icons, including the girl in the painting “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” the Harry Potter series’ very own Professor Snape, and even the creepy doll from Squid Game.
https://twitter.com/YassifyBot/status/1459377475704741889?s=20
https://twitter.com/YassifyBot/status/1462915940740481024?s=20
— Yassify Bot (@YassifyBot) November 14, 2021
Despite its name, Yassify Bot is, in fact, not run by a bot. The account is being run by a 22-year-old college student in Omaha going by the name Denver Adams, who accepts requests from netizens to yassify something in exchange for some tips. Adams created the Yassify Bot account on November 13, 2021 and has since gained a large following, with the Twitter account now having over 136K followers on the platform.
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