Bad Luck Brian Meme
A meme is a photo followed by relatable text that is spread by internet users. A new format of memes was created with Bad Luck Brian. The format of this meme being a situation taking place that is then followed by a highly unlucky and humorous result.
This classic meme started in 2012 and is still being remixed today. It all started off with Kyle Craven (Bad Luck Brian) having a bad yearbook photo. He tried to take a funny photo for the yearbook, as he was known as the class clown, so he found an outfit from a thrift shop, put on a goofy smile and tried to take the best yearbook photo at his school. He didn’t realize this would lead to his inevitable fame on the internet that would last years to come. His friend Ian Davies found humor in his bad photo (what a great friend) and uploaded the photo to Reddit with the caption as follows:
This meme wasn’t very popular at the time of upload, with less than five votes. Yet the photo that Ian David used became popular and got used again and again for more interesting and funnier memes. It was uploaded days later with a new caption: “Tries to stealthily fart in class / shits.” This meme exploded with 3,300 up-votes in less than 2 months.
This caused a ripple effect for this photo being used for memes.
The meme got famous because of the nature of it, bringing out the awkwardness in taking class photos and being relatable to the social awkward and nerdy kid (many people sometimes feel like). What is funny is that in real life Bad Luck Brian isn’t actually unlucky at all. Instead, he is actually a very lucky guy. He once won an Xbox and a PSP within a two-week period. The act of him actually getting famous just over a bad photo of himself, a photo that he tried to make comedic, ended up being a quick way to make $20,000 from shirts and other products.
Here is a video further explaining the history of the Bad Luck Brian meme: