|
Don't Let Your Kids Watch It! |
| This article contains content that is not suitable for younger viewers. Viewer discretion has been advised.
NSFW content: The song was involved in Yugoslavia Wars with war crimes and mentions a mass shooting. |
 |
| U MAD BRO? Serbia Strong / Remove Kebab is a featured article here on Teh Meme Wiki |
Description[]
Serbia Strong or Serbia Stronk (Serbian: Србија јака, romanized: Srbija jaka), also known as God Is a Serb and He Will Protect Us (Serbian: Бог је Србин и он ће нас чувати, romanized: Bog je Srbin i on će nas čuvati) in reference to a Bosnian Serb convicted war criminal Radovan Karadžić, and Remove Kebab (Serbian: Уклони ћевап, romanized: Ukloni ćevap), is a meme glorifying Serbs directed to mainly Croats and Bosnian Muslims. The song played was titled Караџићу, води Србе своје (romanized: Karadžiću, vodi Srbe svoje, transl. Karadžić, Lead Your Serbs), which was composed as a morale boosting tune for Serbian forces during one of the wars, and it is played by members of the Republika Srpska Krajina Army. It was produced by a group of four Bosnian Serb Army soldiers, a trumpet player, an accordion player, a singer and a keyboard player and released in 1993 by Željko Grmuša. It is commonly used with Polandball memes and Remove Kebab memes. It entered in online circulation in 2006, which gained much notoriety for its nationalistic tone and spawned a large volume of parody images and videos. In March 2019, a document authored by a shooter who killed 50 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand referred to himself as a "kebab removalist" in reference to the meme. The original YouTube video was removed due to hate speech.
Origin[]
According to the keyboardist, Slobodan Vrga, the video was filmed near Knin, Croatia, in 1995 apparently by an independent producer named Nikola Jorgic. The singer, Zeljko Grmusa, also identified the site as near Knin but the year as 1993. Jorgic is featured briefly speaking into a microphone at the beginning of the earliest online instance of the music video uploaded by YouTuber ARHIVISTA on August 3rd, 2008. ARHIVISTA is the account of Croatian documentary filmmaker Pavle Vranjican who covered the Yugoslav Wars near Knin. Due to inclusion of scenes from Karadžić's 2008 trial, the clip appears to have been modified from its original source to parody the creators' intent. Vrga initially identified Nenad Tintor as the trumpeter and Grmusa as the vocalist but did not recall the name of the accordionist. It was later revealed by a Reddit user StartSpring that the accordionist was Novislav Novo Djajic. In light of the song being played prior to the Christchurch mosque shootings, both Vrga and Grmusa have condemned the shooter's actions.
Web usage[]
On May 24th, 2006, YouTuber Momcilo uploaded a music video titled Dzamije lete (Serbian: Џамијe летe, transl. Mosque Fly), which opens with edited footage from the "Serbia Strong" music video, garnering more than 378,000 views. Unlike the version uploaded by Vranjican, the segment lacks a watermark. The video, taken from a mock-contest for Best Chetnik Song, was broadcast on the Croatian television network Omladinska TV (OTV) during the Eurovision 2006 contest. The music video was used as a transition into "Dzamije lete" featuring Miro Sembermac who had published Serbian turbofolk music through the Superton label. Due to Vranjican's involvement in the OTV special, the clip likely came from the same tape source.
YouTube[]
The original watermarked source of the video has been then uploaded on YouTube on August 3rd, 2008 with the title Radovan Karadzic Haag bluz. The first YouTube parody of the music video has been submitted on August 25th, 2010 featuring Team Fortress 2 characters Heavy, Scout and Engineer. Thanks to the title REMOVE POOTIS, the music video has been also referred as Remove Kebab inspired from the copypasta text and the parody fad began to grow with the snowclone REMOVE X. On September 15, 2011, YouTuber 85552100 uploaded a flash animated parody of the music video featuring the Minecraft characters Enderman, the Human player and the pig. It gained until July 3, 2012 by more than 1,583,000 views and is the most known Serbia Strong parody on YouTube.
Following the shootings, various videos of the song were removed from YouTube, including some with over a million views. Users quickly re-uploaded the tune, saying it was to "protest censorship". On March 17th, 2019, YouTube removed the Remove Kebab (perfect loop) video, which had accumulated upwards of nine million views in the seven years it was on the site.
2019 Christchurch Mosque Shootings[]
On March 15th, 2019, shootings took place at the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, during which at least 49 people were killed and an additional 20 were injured. The attacks were livestreamed by the shooter on Facebook, which showed the shooter entering a mosque while shooting a shotgun, before switching to an semiautomatic gun and murdering people inside. During portions of the stream, the songs "Remove Kebab" and the Eurobeat song Gas Gas Gas could be heard playing in the background. In a document circulated prior to the incident, the suspected shooter describes himself as a "kebab removalist" and cites the great replacement conspiracy theory as a motivation for the attack. Both the vocalist, Zeljko Grmusa, and the keyboardist, Slobodan Vrga, have condemned the shooter's use of the song, with the vocalist stating in his interview "It is terrible what that guy did in New Zealand, of course I condemn that act. I feel sorry for all those innocent people. But he started killing and he would do that no matter what song he listened to."
Dat Face Soldier[]
The video is also known for the accordion playing soldier, falsely identified as Novislav Đajić, who was named "Dat Face Soldier" by users. He is mostly favored by his facial expression. After serving his prison sentence, Đajić is rumored to have lived in Montenegro until his supposed death in 2018.
On a new post on Reddit titled New Information About Serbia Strong (Remove Kebab) Video Origin on August 27, 2018 by OldClassicGamer, it was verified that the Dat Face Soldier is not Novislav Đajić by Slobodan Vrga, who stated that he is "not that Novislav", implying that accordion player is also named Novislav, later identified as Novislav Novo Djajic. According to a Reddit user StartSpring who stated his full name and was related through his maternal first cousin, he died around 4-5 months ago, corresponding to around February or March 2018. He also stated that their families are not in "frequent contact" and claims that he had Facebook account, but was unable to find it due to unknown circumstances.
See also[]
External references[]
- Lurkmoar – REMOVE KEBAB
- Urban Dictionary – Remove Kebab
- Tumblr – Tagged Results for 'Serbia Strong'
- Tumblr – Tagged Results for 'Remove Kebab'
- Giphy – Search Results for 'Serbia Strong'
- Giphy – Search Results for 'Remove Kebab'
- Polandball Wikia – Serbiaball
- Reddit – Remove kebab?
- Facebook – Remove Kebab
- Change.org – Remove Kebab
- VK – Remove Kebab (Russian)
- MemeCenter – Search Results for 'Remove Kebab'
- Polandball – International Remove Kebab Contest
- YouTube – Slobodan Vrga
- Reddit – New Information About Serbia Strong (Remove Kebab) Video Origin in r/serbia
- imgur – Serbia Strong
- Trial International – Novislav Djajic
- Bosnjaci.net – THE FIRST SERBIAN CRIMINAL SENTENCED FOR GENOCIDE IN BOSNIA
- Know Your Meme - Serbia Strong / Remove Kebab