Apparently there has been a meme called .....
..... the "Distracted Boyfriend," which has been a main stay in social media posts for the past couple of years.
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| The 'Distracted Boyfriend' Meme ...... |
..... the "Distracted Boyfriend," which has been a main stay in social media posts for the past couple of years.
It says a lot about my lack of social media activity that I had never heard of it until this week (Just call me 'Billy no mates!).
It has even been used (well the two models), to promote a political campaign in Hungary to extol the virtues of a strong family .... despite the two models being famous for one of them looking at other women. A fact that has led to much mockery in Hungary and worldwide.
However, such has been the popularity of this meme generally, that as well as being the subject of many copy cats (including the distracted girlfriend), its origins have been speculated upon for a while.
There was a picture circulated on the web, which purported to show a scene from an old Charlie Chaplin 1922 movie called 'Pay Day', on which the meme was said to have been based. But bearing in mind that people interested in memes, are usually very good at making them, then its perhaps no surprise that this turned out to be a photo-shop fake.
But, another picture posted on Reddit, and taken from an old October 1950 US Marines magazine, called "Leatherneck" (yes really!) looks to be the original forerunner of the ubiquitous 'Distracted boyfriend' meme.
I have updated it with a bit of colour etc just for a bit of modern verisimilitude. As the saying goes .... there's nothing new under the sun.
Odd Fact: Memes were first described by Biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene, where he described them as a “unit of cultural transmission”.
It has even been used (well the two models), to promote a political campaign in Hungary to extol the virtues of a strong family .... despite the two models being famous for one of them looking at other women. A fact that has led to much mockery in Hungary and worldwide.
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| Distracted Political Message? |
However, such has been the popularity of this meme generally, that as well as being the subject of many copy cats (including the distracted girlfriend), its origins have been speculated upon for a while.
There was a picture circulated on the web, which purported to show a scene from an old Charlie Chaplin 1922 movie called 'Pay Day', on which the meme was said to have been based. But bearing in mind that people interested in memes, are usually very good at making them, then its perhaps no surprise that this turned out to be a photo-shop fake.
But, another picture posted on Reddit, and taken from an old October 1950 US Marines magazine, called "Leatherneck" (yes really!) looks to be the original forerunner of the ubiquitous 'Distracted boyfriend' meme.
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| 'Leatherneck' - The Meme Originator? |
I have updated it with a bit of colour etc just for a bit of modern verisimilitude. As the saying goes .... there's nothing new under the sun.
Odd Fact: Memes were first described by Biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene, where he described them as a “unit of cultural transmission”.
As an Alanis Morissette fan I'm reminded of the song Doth I Protest Too Much from the album So Called Chaos.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not sure whether she is bothered or not, probably best not to ask, definitely don't ask!!
In my experience women are always bothered by their men looking elsewhere. Its just best not to do it.
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