The “distracted boyfriend” meme, in which people put various captions on a stock photo of a man checking out another woman while in the company of his partner, went viral in August. Months later, people are still looking into the other stock images that feature the models in the popular meme, thanks to photographer Antonio Guillem’s publicly accessible portfolio. When the meme first went viral, people started creating fan-fiction stories from these images. And apparently the internet is not tired of them.
On Monday, Andrew J Abernathy posted several of the stock photos to Twitter and wrote a story for the couple in them.
Looking up stock photos for work and I think I found "distracted bf" girl. pic.twitter.com/pU4flzuLDT
— Andrew J Abernathy 鍾偉中心 (@ajabernathy) November 20, 2017
After being blatantly disrespected by her bf on the streets, it looks like she is also having trouble with homework. pic.twitter.com/fi0gsecpgQ
— Andrew J Abernathy 鍾偉中心 (@ajabernathy) November 20, 2017
Looks like she didn't learn her lesson and they're buying something expensive together. pic.twitter.com/BYwIB1NsDV
— Andrew J Abernathy 鍾偉中心 (@ajabernathy) November 20, 2017
OH NO GIRL THAT'S BAD NEWS. pic.twitter.com/4mRFqVa9C1
— Andrew J Abernathy 鍾偉中心 (@ajabernathy) November 20, 2017
That man is a deadbeat and you knew it! Now look what happened. pic.twitter.com/jgnZGT7JxG
— Andrew J Abernathy 鍾偉中心 (@ajabernathy) November 20, 2017
What did I tell you? He gone. pic.twitter.com/z6C0Lh0D6w
— Andrew J Abernathy 鍾偉中心 (@ajabernathy) November 20, 2017
The red flags just piled up and piled up didn't they? pic.twitter.com/JslCA38kZO
— Andrew J Abernathy 鍾偉中心 (@ajabernathy) November 20, 2017
JUSTIFIED. Too little too late though pic.twitter.com/m3L8TraW73
— Andrew J Abernathy 鍾偉中心 (@ajabernathy) November 20, 2017
Andrew tweeted that he “wasn’t aware” of similar stories that featured the stock photo couple, even though it’s been repeatedly covered online.
Thank you for showing me other peoples' similar work – ALL good, all funny! I genuinely wasn't aware of it. I saw the first photo while looking for "writer's block" images for work and spontaneously tweeted it out. I'm just happy other people could get a laugh today!
— Andrew J Abernathy 鍾偉中心 (@ajabernathy) November 21, 2017
But the internet didn’t seem to mind. The Twitter thread was widely praised.
Thread https://t.co/GnwGkFEw4j
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 21, 2017
This is so much weirder than I could ever have imagined. This thread is amazing. https://t.co/9PeS58EfzV
— Seth Mnookin (@sethmnookin) November 21, 2017
At first, you may not think this will be a promising thread. And then, you go on an amazing journey. https://t.co/bIFxvUQ5Gx
— Maureen Johnson (@maureenjohnson) November 21, 2017
This thread is Twitter storytelling at its best. https://t.co/IobD5gzL7O
— Bristow Marchant (@BristowatHome) November 21, 2017
OMG. This thread. It is so much more than a meme 😂https://t.co/2t6xCakeJT
— Stacey (@ScotsFyre) November 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/2CynicAl65/status/932981289141047298
Thread. Wins Twitter. https://t.co/r806ZEa5Gl
— Aaron E. Carroll (@aaronecarroll) November 21, 2017
Long live the distracted boyfriend meme.