“Confused Nick Young”

[5:42] — My favourite reaction photo to send to my friends when they don’t make any sense.

Nick Young, also known as ‘Swaggy P’ is an NBA athlete and currently plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. He was drafted in 2007, first round pick, #16, by the Washington Wizards.

So how did this NBA athlete become a meme?

According to KnowYourMeme, in 2014, Cassy Athena filmed Nick Young for a full day, then uploaded a 12-minute episode on YouTube entitled “Thru the Lens: (DAY IN THE LIFE): Episode 04 — Day in the life of Nick Young” as part of a web series, Thru the Lens.

At about 5:38 in the video, Young’s mother was describing him when he was younger and says he was a “clown then” — Young reacted with the facial expression we all know today at 5:42. I always thought the question marks were added later on, like when it became a meme, but they were actually part of the original video (something that was actually used stylistically throughout the video).

On July 2015, World Star posted a Photoshop version of the still from the video:

Since then, it sparked a following, and many reiterations (from just using captions and the original picture to tell the joke, or using captions while also using Photoshop to add to the photo) of this still was shared on the internet and on social media sites, such as Twitter and Instagram:

hahahahahahaha… at least the math is correct.

Sometimes the meme was used as a form of commentary on things that were actually happening:

When Steve Harvey said the wrong name at Miss Universe 2015

Remixed with the “Confused Mr. Krabbs” meme for when D’angelo Russell was being called out for being a snitch for recording a video of Nick Young talking about him cheating on his fiancée, Iggy Azalea, which was eventually leaked.

On January 2017, Lamorne Morris, famous for his role as Winston Bishop on New Girl, shared a video of Young’s reaction to the photo:

But why did this particular meme go viral? Maybe it was because Young is a known professional athlete for the NBA… so seeing him as a meme could be considered… unexpected. Maybe it was because it was the most accurate reaction shot for many different scenarios that are at best, confusing. Maybe it is the perfect ‘reaction photo’ to depict confusion. It was also shared via World Star (aka a tastemaker) after all, which already has a major following (aka communities of participation) itself. And according to KnowYourMeme, it was used “most notably during the Drake and Meek Mill feud,” which I’m pretty sure we all remember. It is also humorous for the most part, and evokes emotions and amusement. However, just like we discussed in class… there is no science to explain memes or why things go viral. Memes are art!

So in the end, Nick Young may not have a chance at winning a ring (either from the NBA or from Iggy — please thank D’Angelo Russell), but he at least reached meme status, thus being immortalized on the internet…

………………………………. f or e v e r r r r…