The "Friendship Ended With" meme stems from a photo of two young men shaking hands with two images of a third man who's been crossed out. The colorful graphic, created with Microsoft Paint, declares that a friendship with one of these people has ended and another has begun. Somehow, this private moment from Facebook became a massively popular meme in 2015.
Although the post emerged from Pakistan, it became a global sensation nearly overnight. It was popular enough that in 2021, it sold for big money as an NFT.
The meme image shows Asif Raza clasping hands with a man named Salman as they look into the camera. At each bottom corner sits a photo of another guy named Mudasir based on the caption and the fact that he's crossed out in both.
"Friendship ended with Mudasir," the text reads. "Now Salman is my best friend."
This drama post from Facebook escaped Raza's social circles and became an exploitable meme. Anyone whose favorite celebrity, fictional character, or personal taste in anything had changed could alter the text and/or subjects of the image to reflect this.
On Oct. 4, 2016, Vice published an interview with Raza that explained the friendship breakup and fallout. It wasn't one incident that made Raza turn on Mudasir, but rather a perceived personality shift and a period of neglect.
"He was my friend for longer than five years before [the meme], but he became very selfish, arrogant, and proudy," the meme creator explained. "He was not giving me time."
Raza went on to say that Mudasir was "very angry" with him for not blurring out his face in the meme and came to his house to complain.
According to DigitalCultures, Raza published the image to his Facebook account on Sept. 13, 2015. It gained over 10,000 reactions and shares from the meme's global fan base.
Soon after its appearance on Facebook, it spread to the Reddit sub r/indianpeoplefacebook. The meme's popularity endured over the years, with search trends for the term "Friendship Ended With meme" spiking on a regular basis.
Weeks after the friend split, Raza posted a new but similar image announcing that he and Mudasir had worked things out. The two of them shook hands with similar awkward expressions along with text saying that they and Salman had formed a buddy trio.
"Friendship regained [sic] with Mudasir," it reads. "Now Mudasir and Salman both are my best friends."
According to a Vice follow-up report, the real problem between Raza and Mudasir was that the latter got married and didn't have as much time for his friend anymore.
"I got married first," Mudasir explained. "When I had my wedding, Raza would say, ’You don’t spend time with me anymore.’ I would tell him I’m married and that I don’t have much time to give. When he got married he would then say to me, ‘You were right, you really don’t get any free time after marriage.'"
In early Aug. 2021, during the height of the very temporary NFT craze, Raza capitalized on the meme by auctioning it off as a token. It sold for 20 ethereum, or $51,530. Vice reports that Raza planned to make more memes to sell, but it's unclear whether he was able to do so before the NFT market collapsed.
The co-founder of Alter—the startup that helped conduct the sale—said at the time that NFTs were big in Pakistan, but selling them was tricky.
"A lot of Pakistani creators are making NFTs," said Zain Naqvi. "However, people like Raza and his friends who despite being super famous, have not been able to capitalise on that."
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