A meme of a man blinking repeatedly in disbelief went viral in 2017. Now 39 years old, here’s what he looks like now.
Drew Scanlon, from San Francisco, went viral in 2017 for a GIF of him shaking his head, raising his eyebrows, and blinking as if saying, ‘Oh … Wow … okay then’.
You’ve probably seen it online. In fact, you’ve likely even used the meme to react to something that left you stunned.
But despite being thrust into the public eye, Scanlon never sought to capitalize on being one of the most recognizable faces on the internet – until now.
Eight years on, he’s decided to do good with his fame.
Scanlon took to X over the weekend to encourage people to donate to the National MS Society, and his post went viral, racking up 21 million views, 408,000 likes, and 38,000 retweets.
“Hi internet! I’m Drew and THIS IS MY FACE,” he wrote alongside the iconic clip that cemented him in internet culture forever.
“If this GIF has ever brought you joy in the past, I humbly ask you to consider making a donation to the National MS Society. It would mean a lot to me and to those I know affected by the disease!”
“I’ve been resistant (to cash in on the meme) because it feels like I don’t own it,” he told Sky News. “It was created by the internet, and I didn’t have anything to do with it. It would feel to me like the band wearing the band’s T-shirt – it’s just not cool”.
But he finally decided to “toot his own meme horn” and out himself as the face behind the meme because he wanted to raise money for a good cause.
He used the meme for the first time ever in that tweet and has since become a top fundraiser, raising over $66K, exceeding his initial goal of over $9K.
“I don’t know if the stars will align in quite the same way again, so I treat this as an opportunity,” he said.
“If I can use it to get some funding for medical research, then I should try it.”
Commenters were shocked
While many praised him for using his platform in this way, others simply shared their shock upon discovering who the man was behind their favorite meme.
“Nice to put a face to the blink,” said one.
“(You’ve been) in my top three GIF rotation for the last three years, hands down. You get a follow. Thanks for your contribution to digital humanity,” another wrote.
“Wow. Never thought I would find the face behind a meme on my timeline,” read a third reply.
Some found photos of him on his profile and were stunned by his new look.
“You have lost so much weight!” said one.
Others thought he was “hot” with one replying, “Are you single? Asking for a friend”.
The creation of the meme
Scanlon was a video editor at Giant Bomb for eight years and previously explained that the meme was recorded in 2013 during his appearance on the company’s ‘Unprofessional Fridays’ show at the gaming reviews website.
The now-famous clip came about during a moment when, while playing a game involving farming, another team member said he was “farming with my hoe here”.
It caused Scanlon to raise his eyebrows for a moment and blink his eyes in disbelief.
Speaking to BuzzFeed in 2017 after it first went viral, he said his reaction was completely natural and he didn’t really think twice about it until he saw he was going viral four years later.
He realized the short clip was blowing up on Twitter and described the feeling as “weird” and even “a little bit scary” knowing how big the internet was.
After it went viral, Scanlon left his job and spent a few years working on a crowdfunded documentary project exploring the world through the lens of games called Cloth Map.
From 2020 to 2024, he worked as a producer at Digital Eclipse, a video game development studio.
He now co-hosts two podcasts – one about movies with his wife, Sara, and another centred on Formula 1 – and is passionately committed to funding MS research.
Every year, he rides around 160km across San Francisco on his bike to raise funds for the National MS Society as part of the charity cycling group Big El West.
“Two good friends of mine suffer from MS, so it’s a cause quite close to me,” he shared on his website.
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