Imagine the worst school photo or prom picture that’s in your family photo album, now imagine that photo album is the internet. Well, that’s what life has been like for the famous faces behind our favorite hilarious memes. Luckily, while the internet may not be a place that forgets, it does give chances for redemption.
Remember faces like ‘side-eyeing Chloe’ and ‘bad luck Brian’ well, they are all grown-up. From hilarious to downright awkward, the expressions these ‘celebrities’ made are forever immortalized on the web, but now so are their transformations. Just like a fine wine, most of these stars have gotten better over time. And even though they are older now, these funny faces are still quite recognizable (don’t worry the ridiculously photogenic guy is still ridiculously photogenic).
1. Success Kid (Sam Griner)
The meme originated in 2007, after Laney Griner uploaded a photograph of her son Sammy trying to eat sand to Flickr. The meme gained initial popularity captioned “I Hate Sandcastles”, suggesting that the boy had just destroyed another child’s sandcastle. Laney disliked the “I Hate Sandcastles” meme as she felt it made her son – who in fact loved sandcastles – look like a bully, but she embraced the “Success Kid” concept. She said that her son gets embarrassed by his association with the meme.
2. Disaster Girl (Zoe Roth)
The photograph of the girl and the burning house was taken by Dave Roth in January 2004 during the local fire department’s live drill training two blocks away from his home in Mebane, North Carolina. While observing the fire, Dave caught his daughter, Zoe, smiling devilishly juxtaposed against the burning house. “I’d love for the meme to help me get into or pay for college somehow,” Zoe says. “But I ultimately want people to know me for me.”
3. Side-Eyeing Chloe (Chloe)
On September 12th, 2013, YouTuber KAftC uploaded a video titled “Lily’s Disneyland Surprise… AGAIN,” which shows two sisters, Lily and Chloe, reacting to the news of a surprise trip to Disneyland on their way to school. As the older sister, Lily, breaks into tears of joy, Chloe is briefly seen on camera with a disturbed look on her face that will forever be known as the ‘Side-Eyeing Chloe’.
4. Good Luck Charlie (Mia Talerico)
It’s a scene from the Disney Channel show “Good Luck Charlie”. The expressive girl is often used as a synonym for “I don’t know”
5. Doge
On February 23rd, 2010, Japanese kindergarten teacher Atsuko Sato posted several photos of her rescue-adopted Shiba Inu dog Kabosu to her personal blog. The photos included a peculiar shot of Kabosu sitting on a couch while glaring sideways at the camera with raised eyebrows, which is now known as the first picture of “Doge”
6. Overly Attached Girlfriend (Laina Morris)
In 2012 YouTuber Laina Morris uploaded a webcam video in which she performs a parody version of Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” with personalized lyrics. The video was submitted in response to Bieber’s announcement of an online sing-off contest in promoting his celebrity perfume “Girlfriend”. But it wasn’t an easy trip from meme origin to YouTube success, Morris spoke about privacy issues following the meme’s success. “Strangers were finding my personal Facebook page and talking to my friends. They were finding where I worked and trying to access my college records” Morris recalls.
7. Ridiculously Photogenic Guy (Zeddie Smith)
