Symbol of 2022

I bought a keychain in the shape of a blue cat with big eyes and a wide smile in the layout. Milota. The younger, seven-year-old Vanya: “Daddy, do you think it’s funny? This is Hagi Vagi. She has terrible teeth behind her smile, she can eat. Personally, I don’t like her.”

I immediately remembered that in the summer in Transcarpathia, in the mountains near the waterfalls, the same plush toys were sold with a terrible grin. Monsters baffled me: is it strange that they are sold to children? And the price is heavy. The sellers laughed, “Because it’s a trend. It’s Hagi Wagi. We’re afraid of them. But the kids are buying it.” It turned out that this is a character from a computer game – an embracing toy that suddenly turns into a monster trying to devour everyone. Symbolically, he remembered his friendship with our northern neighbor, who suddenly found an animal grin behind his arms on February 24.

Focus It tackles the history of a popular meme that could symbolize 2022.

I bought a keychain in the shape of Haga Vaga, because I did not recognize the “Carpathian” monster inside: here he is smiling with his mouth closed.

When I went on the Internet, I was amazed by the popularity of the blue beast: Arestovich has tens of thousands on YouTube, Nevzorov has hundreds, and Haga Vagi has millions! Moreover, he only appeared as a character in the computer horror game Poppy Playtime, released by an American indie company in October 2021.

Huggy Wuggy – from the English. hug – “hug”. So, it was originally designed as a hug toy.

According to the game’s plot, Playtime Co. The main character, a former employee of the toy factory, decides to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his colleagues. There is no one in the factory, only pools of blood here and there. In the living room is a three-foot-tall toy (just like the keychain I bought) hugging Hagi Vaga and smiling red-mouthed. Hagi Vaga has keys in his paws. You take the key and it makes it possible to get a VHS tape from the safe describing what happened at the factory.

However, as soon as you start watching, you suddenly realize that Hagi Wagi has disappeared from his seat in the lobby of the company. He starts chasing you with his mouth open… and there are three rows of teeth like a shark. If he catches up, he’ll hug you to death. What’s more, it can even go through ventilation pipes – this toy creature is soft after all.

It turned out that it was Hagi Wagi who ate all the employees. On the wall of the bloody inscription “Sorry, but I’m hungry.” Why does he regret his behavior?

The main change of the game: a hug toy designed to love turns into a toothy, insatiable monster.

A video of Hagi Waghi was posted on Tik-Tok and it went viral. Then an animated movie appeared on YouTube, which talked about the history of the factory and the origin of the beast – the cartoon immediately exceeded 10 million views.

The cartoon said that the factory made two hit toys: a beautiful, big-eyed Poppy doll and cuddly Hagi Waga. However, this construction had another hidden purpose – to achieve immortality in the laboratories. (Yes, falling into “toy” infantilism forever).

One of the employees was promoted for participating in a secret scientific experiment. He was crossed with Hagi Wagi (according to one version, his brain was transplanted into a toy). The experiment was successful, but he turned into a working monster: he broke the doors of his solitary cell and began to devour everyone. That’s why the factory is so empty. But Hagi Wagi is not alone – Poppy doll is also included in one of the boxes. Moreover, according to one version, he is behind all this nightmare, even though he pretends to be a victim who needs to be saved…

Hagi Wagi began to actively buy plush toys to make videos with them. Some crap like “Hagi Waggi is exercising” or “Hagi Waggi saddles a cat” easily gets a million or more views.

A female modification of Hagi Waga appeared – pink Kisi Misi and several “relatives”: multi-colored Lilly Milli, orange Wank Punk, etc. Now they are brimming with whole toy and gift shops.

Parents were alarmed, but psychologists assured: after three or four years Hagi Vagi is not dangerous for children – allegedly, children learn not to be afraid, on the contrary: after all, Hagi Vagi is “tamed”. Before, children were not afraid to sleep in beds with bears and wolf cubs, but these are predators!

It is interesting that the first increase in the popularity of Hagi Vaga and a series of articles about him appeared in February 2022 – just before the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. But Hagi Vagi really somehow symbolizes the development of relations between our countries. Despite the occupied Crimea and the aggravation in the Donbass, many Ukrainians believed in the remnants of friendship between our “brotherly” peoples. In addition, Putin and Lavrov assured that there would be no war two months before the large-scale invasion of our country by the Russian Federation. But their “embrace” resulted in a treacherous attack and an attempt to eat Ukraine.

So Hagi Wagi can rightfully claim to be the symbol of 2022.