Blinking Guy Meme Memes Are the New Currency Funny
When people on social media want to react to something they see with incredulity, they commonly seek out a meme known as the blinking white guy.
He has become a cornerstone of internet culture for millions - yet few people know his story, nor how he reached the dizzying heights of meme fame.
For the past 2-and-a-one-half years, Drew Scanlon has pretty much been the official face of "what the f***?".
Recalling the moment that would go the stuff of cyberspace legend, he recalled: "I don't remember doing it at all.
"Information technology was one joke in a two-hour stream that nosotros did every week, and a very forgettable moment for me at the time."
That stream was a 2013 episode of Unprofessional Fridays - a show by video game website Giant Flop.
Drew was a producer at that place and occasionally appeared on camera.
He made the expression when his editor, Jeff Gerstmann, remarked to colleagues that he had been "doing some farming with my hoe here" while playing a game called Starbound.
Some four years afterward, for whatever reason, the startled face up of Drew took on a life of its own every bit a GIF, which travelled like wildfire beyond social media.
Drew told Sky News: "There were animated GIFs made of united states all the time, simply this was the first i that jumped species from our ain picayune video game community to the internet at large.
"At offset I didn't see it in the wild for myself, only people who follow me on Twitter who sent information technology on to me. I had people saying stuff like, 'my mum just sent this to me on Facebook, she doesn't fifty-fifty know who you lot are'.
"The starting time instance I saw it myself was a tweet someone made about biology. It was a good representation of how you could employ the GIF as a punchline to a joke and it was impressive to see how many retweets it got."
Since so information technology has been used in a variety of contexts and it has mutated several times.
The face of Drew has been re-imagined as a Lego effigy, drawing characters and a sketch from the Take Me On music video past pop band a-ha.
"It has stuck around because it'due south so versatile - I remember it information technology'southward a quick and easy way to limited a feeling," he theorises.
"Memes to me are a mode to express body language over this new net medium we have."
Drew left Giant Bomb non long after the GIF went viral and founded Fabric Map, which sees him explore the world to brand travel documentaries through the lens of gaming.
Chernobyl and Brazil are but some of the places he has visited to observe out how games bring people together.
But despite his need for backers to fund his piece of work, Drew has never sought to take advantage of being ane of the most recognisable faces on the internet - until now.
He tells Sky News: "I've been resistant because it feels like I don't ain it. It was created by the internet and I didn't have anything to do with it. It information technology would feel to me like the ring wearing the band's T-shirt - it's just non absurd."
The reason Drew finally decided to "toot his own meme horn" and out himself every bit the face up of our collective defoliation is because he wants to enhance thousands of dollars to help people with multiple sclerosis.
He used the image in a tweet for the first time this month, asking those who have ever been brought joy by the GIF to consider making a donation to the National MS Social club.
"It would hateful a lot to me and to those I know affected by the disease," he added.
More than 22,000 retweets have helped Drew become the acme fundraiser for the 2019 edition of Bike MS, which tasked him with tackling a 120 mile two-day cycling claiming in California.
He has raised more than $28,000 (£22,622) so far, groovy his initial goal of $10,000 (£8,089).
Drew is all too aware that every meme has a shelf life, but for now his face up remains a fixture of social media.
He says: "I don't know if the stars volition align in quite the same mode again, so I treat this every bit an opportunity.
"If I can employ information technology to become some funding for medical inquiry, so I should try it."
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Source: https://news.sky.com/story/blinking-white-guy-meet-the-man-using-meme-fame-to-raise-thousands-for-charity-11819235
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