There’s a new distracted boyfriend meme, and it’s gay and better in every way
“Daddies always improve everything” (skylxrksays/twitter and twitter)
A new, gay version of the distracted boyfriend meme has gone viral—and it’s clearly superior.
Last year’s hit meme, also known as the girlfriend vs the other girl, took over timelines as thousands of users doctored the original image—a man lustfully staring at another woman while the woman he’s with looks outraged—to make clever alternatives.
One person even created a twist queer ending to the story, finding other stock images with the same models and constructing a beautiful, dramatic narrative.
The rarely seen original distracted boyfriend meme (Twitter)
But now a new, better challenger has entered the meme arena, and it’s blown up on Twitter.
It features a bride and groom posing by the ocean, but while the woman is looking meaningfully at the camera, her beloved is staring at someone else—a hunky man walking out of the ocean in tight trunks.
The gem was posted by Twitter user Skylxrk, who captioned it by writing: “Is… is this an improved version of the ‘Distracted Boyfriend’ meme.”
“Is… is this an improved version of the ‘Distracted Boyfriend’ meme” (skylxrksays/twitter)
Skylxrk, a 28-year-old from Sydney whose real name is Andy, told PinkNews that he wasn’t expecting the tweet, which has attracted more than 110,000 retweets and likes, to blow up.
“I didn’t think it was that funny when I tweeted it, I just thought a few of my friends would get a kick out of it,” he explained.
“Then again, I had a seemingly un-funny tweet blow up on my old account last year, so I guess I should expect that when the internet gets a hold of something, it can go very unexpectedly.”
The postal vote led to same-sex marriage being legalised, but also unleashed a wave of hatred (Scott Barbour/Getty)
The self-described “Twitch affiliated casual gaymer” said the image popped up on Tumblr feed with no indication of where it originated.
He has turned it into an online phenomenon, and said he was happy to go viral because of a post which didn’t risk his privacy.
Andy went viral during the Australian same-sex marriage postal vote, but had his personal details revealed—known as doxxing—after he achieved internet fame.
“I’m not in this one, so it’d be cool to see if it takes off like the original ‘Distracted Boyfriend’ meme did,” he said.
“There’s been some hilariously creative edits in the replies, so I’m glad people are having fun with it.”
He’s completely right about that, with fans of the new meme exhibiting some of the special creativity which you can only find online.
One user showed Twitter having its head turned from the original meme to the new version, with the caption: “George Michael – Careless Whisper.mp3.”
“George Michael – Careless Whisper.mp3” (visakanv/twitter)
In the same vein, another reply shows “you” giving up the “old meme” for the “same meme, but gay.”
“Same meme, but gay” (Amokistan/twitter)
In possibly the most ambitious crossover event in meme history, one user combined the new creation with the ‘Is this a pigeon?’ meme, which had its own queer treatment earlier this year, both in the name of bisexual equality and transgender rights.
“Do it well” (carcasanchez/twitter)
To be fair, if you’re going to start a meme caption with “Is this,” it’s only right that you use the pigeon meme.
One fan poked fun at Lady Gaga’s infamous “AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHRHRGRGRGRRRGURBHJB “EORWPSOJWPJORGWOIRGWSGODEWPGOHEPW09GJEDPOKSD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!0924QU8T63095JRGHWPE09UJ0PWHRGW” tweet, implying that she’d rather post an excited string of nonsense than release new music.
We get it, Lady Gaga (the_green_city/twitter)
And hey, we’ve all been distracted from our work by mostly naked Mario — right?
Oh hey, it’s Mario (OzzBW1337/twitter)
Well, now we have.
