Memes Evolution: Distracted Boyfriend
To understand why memes still linger on throughout the years, it is important to define what a meme is and how it has evolved into society today. There are many ways to define a meme. A meme can be an image or video that is captioned to elicit humor. Memes represent the thoughts and feelings of a specific audience. A digital studies professor and author, has defined a meme in her book Memes in Digital Culture. Shifman offers an exact definition of Internet memes: “a group of digital items sharing common characteristics of content, form, and/or stance, which were created with awareness of each other, and were circulated, imitated, and/or transformed via the Internet by many users.” In Limor Shifman’s book Memes in Digital Culture, she argues the exact definition of the word “meme,” differentiating memes from virals, and conducting more studies that examine the practices and politics behind memes. Shifman articulates the basics of digital meme theory. From what I have gathered anything can become a meme. Making a meme go viral is the hardest part. An image or video becomes a meme and is spread via social media platforms, person to person, blogs, email, text, or even news sources. Memes often relate to existing cultures, subcultures, and are used purposely to elicit humor. But why do some memes linger on throughout years? More importantly, why does the Distracted Boyfriend meme linger? Why are memes even a ‘thing’?
Colloquially, memes may refer to pieces of media that are designed to format true Internet memes. The concept of the Internet meme was first proposed by Mike Godwin in the June 1993 issue of Wired. Memes may not be intended to be a viral sensation or spread at all. What is described as a meme varies across different communities online and is designated to change over time. Dawkins explained that Internet memes are thus a “hijacking of the original idea”, the very idea of a meme having mutated and evolved in this new direction. This form of Internet meme is shown with the Distracted Boyfriend meme.
Furthermore, Internet memes carry an additional property that ordinary memes do not: Internet memes leave a footprint in the media through which they propagate (for example, social networks) that renders them traceable and analyzable. Memes are also used by public relations, advertising, and marketing professionals. These memes are a form of viral marketing and guerrilla marketing to create a marketing “buzz” for their product or service. The practice of using memes to market products or services is known as memetic marketing. An example of viral marketing used recently is Wendy’s began a social media approach in 2017 that heavily featured memes and was successful. Obviously, the most common memes are the ones that go viral and gain attention on social media just like Wendy’s advertisement strategy, the Distracted Boyfriend meme became a hit. Memes are a worldwide social phenomenon that plays a huge role in social engagement. As memes become more viral they begin to have spin-off versions and can be transformed into GIfs, short videos that become viral sensations just like the Distracted Boyfriend meme. The Distracted Boyfriend meme is important to further analyze because there have been various spin-off versions of this meme. This meme has circulated on social media for years and has become one of the top most popular memes to exist.
Now the principle of memes has been established. I will further discuss and analyze the Distracted Boyfriend meme and explain how the meme became a viral sensation and why it is still lingering on various social media platforms after years of its original stock image has been created.
The Distracted Boyfriend Meme also known as “Man Looking at Other Woman is based on a 2015 stock image by the Spanish photographer Antonio Guillem. Guillem is the man behind the original stock photo. He is a 45-year-old professional advertising photographer. For the past few years, he has been working a 16-hour day shift primarily shooting images for Microsoft agencies. During an interview, Guillem states, “we are one of the top sellers, microstock photographers, in the world…3 years and a half after we started, we were selling 1,600 photos a day.” He explains his history throughout the interview and says his best-selling photos are currently being purchased over 6,000 times every year, and the Distracted Boyfriend meme does not even rank among his most popular work — it sells about 700 times a year. He proceeds to explain his journey and the history of the meme. Guillem told Wired that he wanted to shoot a photo session representing the concept of infidelity “in a playful way”. The image was originally uploaded to Shutterstock with the caption: “Disloyal man walking with his girlfriend and looking amazed at another seductive girl.” The boyfriend and girlfriend in the photograph are known by their stage names “Mario” and “Laura”. Insider states, “‘Mario” is the male in the middle of the image, and “Laura” is his girlfriend, on his right. The identity of the third model, in the red dress, is still a mystery. She no longer works with Guillem.” The models stated that the photo session was a fun experience. “Laura” described the experience saying, “When people saw us simulate those scenes in the street, they stopped to look and laugh and, in my case that I had to have a more serious face, I had a hard time to keeping it”. The models were not expecting this stock image to become a viral sensation two years after this shoot. Mario stated how he found out he began a viral sensation, “People just started sending these memes to me, filling up my social media, even people I hadn’t seen for many years.” The original photo is quite simple and could have easily lived its entire life as an obscure stock photo. Antonio Guillem along with the models presented likely thought that it wouldn’t go much further than that as well.
To their surprise, the meme became a viral sensation in August 2017 as a way to depict different forms of infidelity. The meme has inspired various spin-offs and received critical acclaim. Know Your Meme stated how on April 15th, 2018, Distracted Boyfriend was named “Meme of the Year” at the 10th annual Shorty Awards. “The meme beat Galaxy Brain, Right in Front of My Salad, Roll Safe, The Floor Is… and Tiny Trump.” It became so popular people developed and produced spin-off versions of the original stock image.
Early variations of the distracted meme used other photos (pictured above) from Guillem’s photoshoot of the three stock characters to create a story. Social media users began to find similarities between Guillem’s photos and existing photographs including a promotional image from Mission: Impossible — Fallout featuring Henry Cavill and Angela Bassett. Another example of a famous spin-off was painted by a Twitter user named Joshua Reynolds who painted David Garrick Between Tragedy and Comedy the “18th-century equivalent” of the distracted boyfriend meme. The painting itself became popular as a similar meme with historic references. Another documented spin-off was posted June 2018 by Peter Goldberg from a scene from Charlie Chaplin’s 1922 short film Pay Day with a format similar to the distracted boyfriend meme. It is clear that the meme is circulated everywhere people against the world have created spin-offs. But why? Why is this meme lingering on social media after four years of the original stock photo?
The meme is still lingering online because it’s appealing, it’s humorous and it is both extremely versatile and delightfully simple. It is easy to create spin-offs because of the simplicity of the image. It is humorous alone without any texts embedded in the image on top of each of the models. It is relevant worldwide. I would argue memes linger longer than you would think by how versatile the meme is. A man turns to look back at an attractive woman walking back the other way. It can be a natural instinct, looking at something so attractive. While his girlfriend looks in disgust. The original photo is quite simple — just a man looking away from his girlfriend at another woman. It is completely normal for men to look at other women. It’s also completely normal for women to have that visceral, emotional reaction when they catch their partner looking. When he saw her, a chemical reaction happened in his brain. Neurotransmitters were released, giving him an involuntary surge of pleasure. Part of him wants her or wonders what it would be like to be with her, in a completely harmless and innocent way. However, the girlfriend is filled with disgust. This is so natural amongst relationships. This meme became so memorable because of the jealousy and disgust look because many people on social media can relate to that feeling. Many people can relate to this image and if they can’t relate to this specific image there are thousands of spin-offs that have been created that they can feel a part of.
Here’s another stock photo with the same couple and the same theme. Titled: “Girlfriend discovering that her boyfriend is cheating with her best friend at home”
Guillem was also surprised by how this photo became a viral sensation. He never thought his photographs would become so popular he says in an email to PetaPixel. “As you can imagine, we can’t worry about each one of the particular uses that have been given to our photos, as we focus on creating content that can be sold thousands of times, even though the meme situation can be surprising.”
Here’s Guillem’s story of how this particular photo came about all from credible sources he states:
We work exclusively on advertisement photography for microstock agencies as I explained before, so the origin of this picture was purely for work reasons. The session took place in mid-2015 in Gerona (Catalonia, Spain) and because we were having a great sales response to our work, we decided to take a few risks planning a session representing the infidelity concept in relationships in a playful and fun way.
The setting was completely improvised as we didn’t have time to search for it. As I always work with the same models, it was quite easy to create the situation even though it was quite challenging to achieve facial expressions that were believable. Mainly, because we always have a really great work atmosphere and almost all the time one of the models was laughing while we were trying to take the picture.
Guillem says he creates concepts for his stock photos based on looking at numbers to figure out what sells. It is evident how successful this meme was and why Guillem decided to shoot more shots from his original theme. This strategy has allowed him to build a massive library of stock photos that all sell, giving him more flexibility in taking risks and attempting new concepts. This specific work made him popular as a photographer. He was surprised at how successful this session was. Social media users began to recognize his work and make spin-off versions of their own. However, Guillem made it clear he was worried about copyright. Although copyright infringement of his photo is rampant, he stated he won’t be taking legal action except in cases of “bad faith”. He clearly is thrilled about how many people have reached this image but he does not condone offensive and harmful spin-offs especially targeting his models. Luckily that is not the case and hundreds of people have created successful spin-offs that are even more customized to fit people's morals and personality traits.
When users started adding text on top of the people in the photo to assign different names or personalities to the original stock image it became more relatable to users on social media. Each version of the photo now tells a different story: looking away from what you currently have, or what may presently make sense, and considering a different (and more preferable option). Spin off versions allowed people to relate to the meme even more because of the unlimited amount of spin offs featured on social media. Especially, this one pictured below. This meme in particular shows engaging texts over the models that most everyone can relate to specifically if you like to take naps.
Laura is meant to represent something that one is supposed to do, and the woman wearing the red dress is meant to represent something more desirable or riskier. The woman in the ‘red dress’ is defined as “a nap” and the boyfriend is defined as “me” and Laura is defined as “multiple pressing matters and responsibilities.” This particular image is very humorous and relatable to anyone who would prefer naps over a stressing responsibility. A nap is very tempting especially if you have a ton of work that needs your attention. As a college student myslef, I can confidently say that napping is something that most of our demographic does pretty well. Whether we’re making up from an all-nighter or just catching up on sleep during our free time, napping is a common college activity across the nation. I relate to this meme specifically because after I take a nap I feel energized and ready to tackle my pressing responsibilities. I would argue that my demographic — age group take naps a fair amount. This meme relates to college students my age specifically and anyone who favors naps in their free time.
The original meme is listed top 10 popular memes. I feel as it is so popular because there can be many spin-offs. I almost never stumble upon the same meme twice. People reacted very positively to this meme. The meme became viral on Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook and was listed as a meme by Know Your Meme and can be described as an example of object labeling. This form of labeling allowed this image to become a viral sensation.
Another humorous spin-off is this visual image below.
Laura is meant to represent dating and the woman wearing the red dress is meant to represent depression. This particular image is another successful spin off because it has been spread on various social media platforms. As Mario is tempted to lower his mental health to “depression” instead of dating Laura. This form of labeling is extremely interesting because it makes you evaluate the entire image. You also have to piece together the “d” on Mario to both the girl in the red dress and Laura. This meme is interactive and opens to unlimited ideas for more spin off versions. This also relates to this meme pictured below.
This image pictures Laura as your mental health and Mario as “me”, so yourself and the woman wearing the red dress as “self destructive tendencies, self isolation, depressing naps, bad coping methods, bad eating and sleeping habits. This is a funny way to elaborate on battles and struggles someone may way. This meme insinuates that someone may struggle with these emotions and bad habits. I would argue in some aspects we all do. Nobody lives life perfectly. There is always an unhealthy habit someone may pick up and not be proud of. Mine also happens to be oversleeping and bad coping methods. I would also argue that my generation also struggles with these emotions and bad habits. It is evident someone else does because this meme would not exist. This meme lingers on social media today because users make them relatable to people on social media platforms. The creator plans out and recognizes what he/she is labeling the picture as will be relatable to at least someone else. I almost always relate to memes that are similar to this theme.
This original image also switched to having Laura as “Mario” so woman can relate even more to this image.
On October 29th, 2017, Redditor “toastr” submitted an image featuring the new stock photo placed underneath the original Distracted Boyfriend picture, along with the caption “The tables have turned.” Within 24 hours, the post gained over 25,600 points (92% upvoted) and 240 comments. That day it was reposted and received 8,400 points (91% upvoted) and 110 comments over the next day. Meanwhile, a photoshopped variation of the image was submitted (shown above) on October 30th, The Daily Dot published an article about the new stock photo titled “Distracted girlfriend brings gender equality to the meme world.” This spin-off is personally one of my favorite versions because I relate to it more, as a woman. I favor this meme because it brings awareness to gender equality and allows more people to relate. Additionally, Laura is pictured as the woman in the picture. I would argue this is more powerful because she is initially used as the model in both the original stock image and this particular spin off. If “Laura” was a different model I would argue it would have a different effect and this meme would not be as funny or spread across all social media platforms. Having the same model in the initial meme was a great idea held by Guillem. He knew he would receive an audience from this particular shot simply because “the tables have turned.”
It is evident this meme has successful spin-offs and is still lingering years after its creation date. It is important to note this meme is lingering because it is so versatile and can be used to create spin-off versions that are still being created today. People reacted so highly to the original meme and there have even been speculations of the return of the characters recreating the original meme.
A photo posted on March 13, 2021, to Twitter claiming to show the ‘reunion’ of the people who feature in the famous ‘Distracted Boyfriend’ meme has gone viral. The photo, posted by John O’Connell on Twitter shows three people mimicking the actions of what became one of the most famous memes of all time. He labeled the photo: “The actual people from *THAT* meme, 10 years on…”
The post immediately went viral. The post received over 1.4 million likes and almost a quarter of a million retweets. Additionally, while so many people celebrated the reunion, some people were not convinced. Thousands began pointing out that the trio did not look the same as the one in the original meme. Particularly the woman to the right of the man. Later after much debate from people all over the world, the man who posted the photo clarified that it was not the same people and he also expressed his surprise that so many people retweeted the photo despite the fact that he had mentioned in a follow-up tweet that the trio in the first photo was not the original people. He added that the trio had taken the photo at an exhibition of memes in New York.
It is incredible these models took time out of their day to recreate this meme. They looked and dressed the same as the original models and pretty much fooled thousands of people — believing the trio has the same three models from the original stock image. It is evident people view the Distracted Boyfriend meme as valuable and worth recreating. Additionally taking time to made spin off versions of the original image. Memes are a social phenomenon that we can engage with daily and it just so happen the Distracted Boyfriend meme is one of them — lingering on social media after four years of its original creation date. Memes are crucial to social media and obviously creates interest to many social media users. The Distracted Boyfriend meme is versatile and relatable to many people. The concept of object labeling also helped this meme become more viral and reach users on various social media platforms. The Distracted Boyfriend meme is hilarious and its comedic approach has become popular in society today.
Memes are meant to create a reaction, an emotion. It is meant to elicit humor and make you laugh. Memes serve as a medium of communication and can help us relate to other people through collective experiences, like being a student, like me. Memes can help release stress through laughter, connect people with similar opinions or illuminate a subject that may be sensitive or controversial. Memes serve my generation specifically because students believe memes are fun, entertaining, and enjoyable. Memes allow others to know they are not alone and other people think the same way they do. This really helped the Distracted Boyfriend meme become a viral sensation and linger on because it allowed people to understand that people view and feel things similarly. The meme allowed people to feel more open with each other and communicate in a way others will understand. Memes seem to be integral to student culture online, allowing for communication, relating to one another, and finding a sense of community; because the Distracted Boyfriend meme does just that it had became a viral sensation and lingers on social media, and will continue to linger on social media with various spin offs that are relatable to not only the college community but to people worldwide.