Dubbed #SelfieKid by Twitter, a 13-year-old boy looking completely nonplussed after taking a selfie with Justin Timberlake mid-Superbowl performance, may just be the meme we needed to kick off the month. Buh-bye Ugandan Knuckles.
Reddit’s MemeEconomy sub — basically the Dow Jones of the meme world (without the financial volatility) — announced a screenshot of the kid as an excellent format for investment Sunday. But later, its value dropped after “imminent normification“. And judging by its sudden popularity across social media, we’d say that it’s firmly in the internet zeitgeist this week.
Over on Twitter, while the Philadelphia Eagles was handing its game of the century to the New England Patriots, #SelfieKid began trending across the United States.
Users quickly took screenshots of the kid, whose real name is Ryan McKenna, and placed it alongside another frame portraying what, in their minds, he was doing on his phone.
— Rahul Kothari (@rahulk013) February 5, 2018
— Neeraj K. Agrawal (@NeerajKA) February 5, 2018
What #selfiekid was really doing pic.twitter.com/zemd7k1XIZ
— flamin hot cheetos (@baylorfit) February 5, 2018
You vs. The Guy She Tells You Not To Worry About#SelfieKid #LeftShark pic.twitter.com/atPAW41i5L
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) February 5, 2018
“I just thought to myself, ‘I’ll never get this opportunity again in my whole life’. I just went for it,” he told a Minneapolis reporter.
We don’t expect this meme to become as legendary as Left Shark, but this little kid does represent the person in all of us. That person who would rather be on Instagram than sing along to a Timberlake song.
