ViralWorld

Bad Luck Brian

A possible image is known, but ViralWorld has not verified that it is the right one.

Biggest memes ever18 of 32

2012·The social era·funny

A school portrait of a boy with a red face and a goofy grin, captioned with everything going wrong for him.

At a glanceThe facts

Spread in
2012
Began as
A photograph
Where it started
reddit
Format
Meme
Era
The social era
Who or what it shows
Kyle Craven, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Recorded
For his high school’s 2005–06 yearbook
Posted by
His friend Ian Davies, who posted it to Reddit
Origin
Not an upload originally
Available
Not held by ViralWorld

What this wasThe story

A high-school yearbook portrait: plaid sweater vest, braces, a grin held far too wide. Kyle Craven pulled the face on purpose, and his friend Ian Davies posted the scan to Reddit in 2012. Captioned in the Advice Animals format — a hopeful first line, a catastrophic second — it became the standard image for a small disaster.

Craven licensed the image, made a modest living from it, and in 2021 sold it as an NFT during the meme gold rush that also took in Disaster Girl and Overly Attached Girlfriend. It remains one of the most recognised faces on the internet belonging to somebody almost nobody can name.

Why it matteredWhat changed

It is an advice animal with a known author and a known joke: the face was pulled on purpose, six years before the internet saw it, and it was a friend who posted it.

TimelineIn order

  1. Made

    Kyle Craven rubs his face red with a sweater and pulls a goofy smile for his yearbook portrait. The principal orders a retake, but he and Ian Davies have already scanned the first one.1

  2. Posted

    Davies posts the photograph to Reddit. It spreads through 4chan, Facebook and Twitter.1

  3. Later

    Craven answers questions on Reddit as himself, after an impostor’s request the month before was removed.1

  4. Came back

    Craven sells the image as a non-fungible token for about 36,000 US dollars.1

  5. Later

    Craven reports that his old school has named its boys’ locker room after the meme, with the rejected photograph on the sign.1

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asHis name is Brian.

ActuallyHis name is Kyle Craven. Brian is the name the caption gave him.1

Commonly remembered asAn unlucky boy caught in a bad school photograph.

ActuallyHe did it deliberately, and the school made him retake it.1

LegacyWhat it left behind

More from hereIn this collection

Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · copied, redrawn and reused until the original stopped mattering · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast

This began as a photograph, not as a video. Originally published on Reddit.

Where it came fromWhat we know

There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. What it began as is recorded here, and what is shown is a later copy.

Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This began as a photograph, not as a video. Originally published on Reddit.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

What this was built on, each one a record of its own.

More from 2012You were there

More from the social eraMore of the archive

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Bad Luck Brian

Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things

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