How does it feel when your face is plastered all over the internet?
Ask Drew Scanlon – he knows all about it. He’s the face of a new meme you may have seen in the past few weeks.
me: ill take a biology class, im smart enough for this just watch me
— iniro🐔 (@eskbl) February 5, 2017
teacher: cells
me: pic.twitter.com/fHJJsPLioO
His reaction face, interpreted usually as a look of incredulity, has been incredibly popular on Twitter this month. It’s been used from everything, from talking about money issues:
me: i want to–
— jaboukie young-white (@jaboukie) February 15, 2017
my bank account:pic.twitter.com/cmTq5mWqt2
To poking fun at Android users:
iPhone User: Android snapchat quality is trash compared to iPhone
— papi ryan🌊 (@ruthlessryan_) February 21, 2017
Android User: ...
pic.twitter.com/xSEY28Arvc
And being mashed up with other memes:
When you're in a fight and they make a good point pic.twitter.com/Lt7QdSrQi5
— Jen Lewis (@thisjenlewis) February 21, 2017
Yet Scanlon’s no stranger to seeing his face on the internet. As a video producer at Giant Bomb, a popular gaming website, he features in at least five hours of videos a week for the site, as well as on its podcast.
“People have passed around gifs of us for as long as I’ve worked at Giant Bomb,” he told the Guardian.
But this is the first time he’s been turned into a widespread, pretty much mainstream, meme.
“It’s certainly a first for me,” he said.
The gif itself is taken from an episode of a Giant Bomb show called Unprofessional Fridays, which was filmed back in 2013. Scanlon and his colleagues were watching their editor, Jeff Gerstmann, play a game called Starbound. The moment comes just as Gerstmann says: “I’ve been doing some farming with my hoe here ... ”
Scanlon doesn’t remember filming this particular video – it was more than three years ago after all – but it’s part and parcel of what the website does. “I think a lot of our effort in these videos is spent on getting each other to laugh, to provide things for other people to react to or riff off.
“My reaction was, I think, part of that.”
I do public appearances, birthday parties, and bar mitzvahs. Contact my agent for day rates. https://t.co/1UNbG7QQwt
— Drew Scanlon (@drewscanlon) February 17, 2017
According to Know Your Meme, the first known use of the gif was on a NeoGaf thread in 2015. But this month it sped into the 2017 meme calendar after a viral tweet about a biology class. The gif was eventually dubbed the “white guy blinking” meme and generally used as the punchline to a funny and relatable tweet.
Fans were diligent in letting Scanlon know about this new pocket of internet fame.
“I first got messaged about that biology tweet – which is still my favourite – a few weeks ago. Since then, pretty much it has been non-stop.
“A lot of people have said that it’s ‘relatable’ which is a bit weird because of course I am, I’m human!”
He also got a weird insight into the Twitter accounts which rip off popular tweets as their own. He said: “I saw that biology tweet so many times, on different accounts.”
me: ill take a biology class, im smart enough for this just watch me
— a girls thoughts (@FemaIeIdeas) February 7, 2017
teacher: cells
me: pic.twitter.com/Jn98ivHi2u
As weird as internet fame can be, Scanlon is relaxed about the whole thing.
He said: “I like what memes can do for people. They’re such fun, throwaway things I see. These memes have been generally positive.
“It’s a little scary because there’s always the danger someone could change it to something different.
“It’s not like I’ve a say in what the internet does with a gif of my face. But I’m pleased to see people are enjoying it.”
