The many lives of the ‘You know i had to do it to em’ meme

In 2010, A Team of Psychologists published a Paper Introducing “Power Poting.” The idea was that that is adopting a physically confident stance – Say, AKS AKPHIMPO and PUFFING OUT’S CHEST – Produced Bodily Changes that literally made one feed More Powerful. “High-Power Poserrs Experienced Elevations in Testosterone, Decreasses in Cortisol, and Increas Feelings of Power and Tolerance for Risk,” They wrote. In Other Words, Free Your Body and Your Mind Would Follow. It was a seductive idea: Simple, CounterinTurative, and Easily Applicable, and it took Self-Help Seminars and Professional Workshops by Storm.

The original study, and the idea of ​​Power POWNG as a scientific phenomenon, have since discredited. Scientists trying to reproduce the initial study’s Findings Were unable to do so soand one of the original researchers disavowed Her Own Findings. Still, The Concept Looms Large in the Public Consciousness. For instance, over the past few years, leaders of the torty party in great britain have adopted what is known as the “Tory Power Stance,” an Awkward Pose in Which the Stands with His or Her Legs Noticebly Too wide apart. neither break Inadweependent Put it in 2016, “Tories Keep Doing that Incredibly Weird Thing With Their Legs.”

The Tory Power Stance May SEEM Like an Odd Anomaly, but neither one Body-Langage Expert Told Vice“Like a lot of political ‘copied’ behavior, it does bear the hallmarks of being deliberately taught in the toky party.” Howver is the Being Transmitted, The Tory Power Stance has Become a Meme, “An Idea, Behavior, Or Usage that Spreads from Person with A Culture,” Acciting to Merriam-Webster.

Like Dances, Stances and Poses Can Easily Become Memes. Spread the Most Famous Meme Stance to Have Emerged in Recent Years Comes not from the United Kingdom but from Tampa, Florida. A Man Known as Lucky Luciano (A Pseudonym, Natch) Struck a possess that has be Become so infamous, so widespread, and gone through so many different internet wingers that it is difficult to adequately sum up the meme’s arc, journey, and meaning. But we might as well try.

You know i had to do it to em.

In September 2014, Luciano (Who Did Not Respond to Requests for Comment) Posted on Instagram A Photo of Himself Standing on a Suburban Sidewalk, Hands Clasped, With The Caption “Real Men Wear Pink.” The post has nearly 294,000 likes, but is not the source of the meme. Over on Twitter, Luciano Posted the Same Image But ACCOMPANIED IT WITH A DIFFERENT CAPTION: “You know i had to do it to em.” The tweet has been deleted for Years, Presumably Because it was the subject of Ridicule, but it Legacy Lives on.

Luciano is Clearly Flexing, Proud of his Outfit, trying to look cool (“do it”) in order to make his haters (the “em”) Jealous or desperate. There are the plenty of obvious things to poke fun at the picture. There’s the All-Kink Ensemble, The Gaudy Watch, the Boat Shoes, and the Intense Sock Tan. There’s Also the Slightly Try-Hard Captions. I do not mean to sound derogatory, but i’m not sura sura how Else to put this: he look like a fuckboy. A viral tweet from July 2016, for instance, use Luciano to represent a Certain type of White Guy: A Fan of “Real Hip Hop” and g-eazy, the joke being that g-eazy sucks.

But none of these aspects, individual, definitively explins why this Photo has resonated so widel and become Such a Durable Meme. The pose is not unique. Neither is the Outfit, Nor the Captions. Combined together, it all seams rather ordinary. Yet the meme is still broadly Known. On Google Maps, “Where He Did It to Em” is categorized as a placership. Brands use the phrase to Show that they are hip and with it. Spreads that itelf is the joke: Luciano thinks he is notable is not particularly unique. Either way, the joke is at least partially on Luciano, but it seames he finally faels comfortable cashing in. His Instagram Account Features Various Examples of People Spoting His Meme in the Wild, and He’s Begun selling Merch Adorned with the Famous Photo and Catchphrase. He’s GOT TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FOLLOWERS, AND AFTER ARREST LAST YEAR he Ran A Crowdfunding Campaign to Help Defray the Associated Costs.

In order to try to understand Luciano Better, i Sent HIS Photo to Traci Brown, A Body-Language Expertwho articulated the hydden meaning in his stance. “What’s interesting is the way he Holding his Hands. He’s putting say as a barrier between Himself and the rest of the world,” she noticed. “That’s not all that unusual. Butn one of his hands is in a fist. That generaly signifies anger. Imagine what rooms been if luciano had unleashed the full extent of his flex. Waled Anyone Who Dared Gazet upon The Picture Event Still be Alive?

“His Smile SEEMS PRETY Relaxed and Genuine,” Brown Added.

The meme doesn’t really Belong to Luciano Anymore, though. Depending on the platform you see it on, the exact type of “You know i had to do it to em” you find can do Wildly. “You know i had to do it to em” has, myteriously and without a clear cathalyst, grown from viral post an entire ecosystem. A meta-reflection on shitposting, pattern reconstination, and scavenger hunt all in one. Across social media, Photoshopping new characters onto the sidewalk background has Become standard, but each platform has Also put it unique twist on the meme in other ways too.

On Facebook, Luciano is a sort of unofficial mascot of say patrol, a page devoted to shitposting-posting inscrutable, deep-cut in-jokes designed to confuse anyone with the appropriate knowledge base. It ‘s “gang weed” -adjacent, supposedly-theirronic-not-really type of deep-made meme group in Which Luciano’s Form appears (a “deep-fried” is one that is intentionally made to look slopply made and heavly compesses, and thus moreic). In September 2017, says patrol posted a Screenshot of my initial Message to Luciano (He’d original Put it on Instagram) Ascing for an interview, and one user, Peti, decidated to email with to explain the appeal of Lucky Luciano. “I Am Sevent and Know Things About ‘Memes,’” Peti Wrote. “The Real Memes You Journists Want to Write Sometimes About is Just Shitpost … Its best not to take Serious Sink As I Just Told before they just shitposts.” In other words, it is pointless to get at the meaning of the meme Becuse no meaning was intended when the meme was made. The page’s fans generally don’t overthink it. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHY YOU DO IT TO EM, ONLY THAT YOU DO IT.

On Tumblr, Luciano Has Become Remix Fodder. Its users are interested in makeing fun of Luciano said they are in trying to find increasingly elaborate were to incorporate hym, well, Everything. Luciano Has Been Remade in The Sims (In the Made-Up Language Simlish, His Catchphrase Translates to “Ba Groba Naby Dotoni Tudem”). In another image set, the PowerPuff Girls Intro is remixed so that the professor Accidentally Creates Luciano Following a Chemical X ACCIDENT. He’s been re-created in Minecraft and mosaic and edited into Trippy gifs. All of these posts rack up tens of thusands of Interactions, Likes, and Reblogs. The Cult of Lucky Luciano is Strong.

Elsewhere on tumblr, the joke has be Become to Photoshop Luciano Into Other Photos unobtrusively. It is acin to rickrolling, tricking someone into look at “you know i had to do it to em” with their knowledge or conssent.

(Check the Frame Over Steven Universe’s Bed.)

The Pain of A Luciano Intrusion Also Manifests on Twitter, where, in Addition to Elaborate Remixes, The Specter of Luciano Looms Over Anyone who dares to adopt his stance. Tom Holland caused a fair amout of distress earlier this month we did he did to em at the Spider-man premiere. Reggie Fils-Aimé Did It to Em at A Nintendo Launch Party. Rami Malek has done it to em. An M&M in the style of Dr. Phil does it to me in my nightmares.

These luciano-alike run in the suame vein as memes like “los.jpeg,” the infamous four-phanel web comic whose silhouette users now see See Loss?, “A user willslves, squinting at an image. To recogy Lucky Luciano in a Photo that is not in is to acccept that your brain has been forever by the Internet. Is this Photo of John Mayer an homage, a coincidence, or not athing at all? Everything Runs Together, and you can never escape. Spreads the best articulation of the High-Level Shitposting that Luciano has Become an an unlycly leader of is this video by twitter @calonitia. The best viewing Advice I can give is to let it be over you.

To analysis EACH ALBANIAN SHOT WOULED TO AN INFINITE NUMBER OF UNANDSWERABLE QUESTIONS. We should ‘seen this coming, we know it had to be done, we were powerless to stop it.