Real Stories Behind Real Memes

Memes are one of the pillars of today’s society. It’s hard to imagine life without them, as they seem to capture everyday situations so well and the rate at which they spread is probably the best example of why the internet really does bring us all closer together.

Most memes you’ve seen dozens of times have an actual backstory attached to them, though. Sadly, this story gets lost most of the time. Let’s take a deep dive into meme history and find the truth behind popular memes.

Overly Attached Girlfriend
This meme all started out on YouTube. Laina Morris, also known as Overly Attached Girlfriend, made a parody video of a Justin Bieber song named “Boyfriend”. She sang the song from the perspective of a stalker girlfriend, and uploaded the entire thing to YouTube. An image from that video would quickly be known as Overly Attached Girlfriend.

As these things go on the internet, loads of people instantly started digging through her personal life, even going as far as messaging her real-life friends. Ironic how her acting like a stalker girlfriend turned her into a victim of cyber stalking.

Luckily for Laina, she kept her cool and kept on making videos. She managed to quit her day job and provide a steady income with nothing but making YouTube videos, which seems like a better job than whatever you and me are doing. She plans to keep her channel going for as long as she can, and we hope she can keep it up for a long time.

Bad Luck Brian
We’ve all seen the picture of this kid that’s posing for a school picture and looks like he’s been screwed over by pretty much everything in life, including genetics. His clothing is awful, he looks weird, he has braces, his eyes look shifty and he has that fashionable 90’s haircut all the kids had back in the day. Kyle Craven – Bad Luck Brian in real life – had this yearbook picture of him posted by a friend and became a meme almost overnight.

Apparently Kyle took the picture in a joke, however. Kyle had a goof where he’d rub his face to make it red, squint his eyes, puff out his jaw and hope for the funniest picture possible. I’m pretty sure he never expected to become a meme, but he’s taken his internet fame like a champ!

Success Kid
There’s really no need for a motivational coach if you’ve heard of the Success Kid meme. There’s so much power that goes with the body language of the toddler in that image. Born as Sammy Griner, Success Kid has become the symbol of motivation for an entire generation of people. While the picture itself doesn’t have a story attached to it, the aftermath has a story that’ll melt your heart.

When Sammy was in elementary school, his dad was fighting a very vicious case of liver failure. He’d been struggling for years, requiring a dialysis almost on a daily basis. The popularity of the meme brought loads of attention to their GoFundMe campaign, allowing them to collect the $100,000 required to fund the treatment for Sammy’s dad. I guess Sammy is a success kid in real life too.