Why is it forbidden to "keep farts inside"?/@dr.karanr
We've all been exposed at one point or another to this very amusing meme: a boy seen trying not to fart in class, with his face red and the veins on his forehead bulging.
Have you ever stopped to check what exactly is going on in this picture and is this poor student really trying to hold in the gas?
So meet Mike McGee, the guy who went viral sometime in December 2013 when his picture broke the web - and yes, even today it pops up occasionally on social media.
This might surprise you, but it turns out that Mike wasn't actually holding a belly bloat when this iconic photo was taken.
Mike said that the photo was taken at 12:04 on October 24, 2013, and what you see in it is him just holding his breath and bending his neck.
In an interview with Buzzfeed in 2021, Mike said that the photo didn't go viral for the first few months after it was taken, but one morning he woke up to find hundreds of new followers on Twitter and realized something was up.
He said: "We were on Christmas break in December. I woke up in the morning and my phone was really shaking from all the notifications. I look at my phone and see there's a 20+ sign on Twitter. I saw someone post the picture that was originally posted by my friend, Matthew, and added the text : 'When you hold back from farting next to your crush' and it immediately exploded." He added: "There were so many people who tagged me in the picture and wrote: 'Hey, is that you?'
Overnight from 700 Twitter followers I had 3000 or something like that."
Have you also come across this meme?
Mike McGee explains what is behind it/documentation in social networks according to Article 27 A of the Copyright Law
This isn't the first time Mike has talked about the iconic meme.
In fact in 2018 he talked about the picture in a conversation with UNILAD and emphasized: "I didn't have gas, no way!".
He said at the time: "Well, the guy who took the picture was a good friend of mine since I first moved here to Texas, so he knew I could make that face whenever I wanted. He wanted to add a funny caption on Twitter telling me to make the face. He posted the That and two or three months after that it took off!"
Mike said that people recognize him all the time, turn to him on the street and ask if he is the man from the famous "meme".
He added: "My parents don't really understand how big it is so they ignore the whole thing, but my friends find it funny!".
"The best thing I got out of it was that I got a free Taco Bell for doing the face. I love Taco Bell!".
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This is how it looks today:
And what about the student in the picture?
Mike told UNILAD that he remains good friends with the girl sitting next to him in the photo, Amber Potter.
The two attended Northwest High School together in Justin, Texas, when the photo was taken.
He was 16 at the time.
Amber was of course exposed to the success of the viral meme and previously revealed her thoughts when the photo was taken: "At first when he made that face I was like 'What are you doing?!', I hope he's okay? It looks pretty painful."
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