Given the state of the, uh, world right now, it's hardly surprising that the next breakout meme for 2017 is a white dude blinking at the camera with a mix of confusion, irritation, and a touch of surprise. Since today is a Tuesday that feels like a Monday, and a winter day that feels like summer, here are the best Blinking Guy GIF memes, glancing uncomfortably into your soul.
To be honest, it's rare that I'm out front on a new meme. It usually takes three to four weeks, just enough time for something to peak and then crumble into overuse, for me to finally understand the references to say, Evil Kermit or Salt Bae. My ignorance can be attributed to a number of factors, the most immediate being that I'm rarely on Twitter and never on Reddit, where seemingly most of the trendy internet things originate.
But OK, fine, technically, Blinking Guy has been around for years. The original clip is from a 2013 video made by video game news site Giant Bomb. Drew Scanlon, the one and true Blinking Guy, was reacting to someone "doing a little farming, with my hoe here."
THAT WAS A TEST. DID YOU MAKE THE BLINKING GUY FACE? I bet you did.
Though footage of Drew's facial expression has been bouncing around the internet for a while now, the current wave of meme posts seem to have drawn their inspiration from this particular Tweet on Feb. 5.
It's perfect, right? A little petty, a little self-righteous, a little taken aback. Though this post deals with academic disappointment, Blinking Guy has now branched out to all areas of our lives that have a habit of not going quite as planned: Finances, relationships, and the End of It All.
