Life

The Blinking Guy Meme Is All Of Us

by Megan Grant

It's not every day that a new meme hits the internet and you think to yourself, "This is totally me." Well, the day has finally come: The Blinking Guy GIF might officially be the most relatable meme ever. I mean, consider some of the other great memes of the modern era: Grumpy Cat is hilarious, but you're too chipper to understand; Success Baby is cute, but... meh... it doesn't quite encapsulate the essence of you; but Blinking Guy? This. Is. You.

Unlike most memes, we have the backstory on this one from the get-go. The blinking man is Drew Scanlon; the GIF itself originated from a show on video game news site Giant Bomb. Scanlon's possibly surprised expression was in response to another man saying he's been "doing some farming, with my hoe here." We can only speculate what Scanlon, ahem, took that as; either way, though, his face might as well be Twitter's new wallpaper, because he's everywhere. While this clip dates back to 2013, it's supposedly a tweet from Feb. 5 that brought the blinking guy to life. While his popularity hasn't (yet) swept across other social media channels, the Twitterverse is obsessed with him. Behold, the original video where the blinking man got his start.

And here is the tweet that may have started it all:

Have you or have you not made that face approximately 5,624 times in your life? I know you have, and you're not alone. Now, we're all comically using the blinking man to express shock and maybe even indignation. Here's how some other tweeters are applying the blinking man to their own lives.

Amidst all the talk of fake news, alternative facts, and the latest encroaching on our basic human rights, here's some news you can finally laugh at (that doesn't involve a nonexistent attack on Sweden). 2017 just threw us a bone, people. Don't squander it.