Welp.
When Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won his third consecutive gold medal for the 100-meter dash Sunday night, he probably wasn’t expecting to become a meme. But Getty photographer Cameron Spencer happened to capture the runner just as he turned his head and smiled as though to say, “Yeah, I’m gonna beat these guys.”
The Getty photographer of this photo you'll see a billion times forever is Cameron Spencer (@cjspencois). pic.twitter.com/ypsZGsJUpS
— Mitch Goldich 🐙 (@mitchgoldich) August 15, 2016
Just like that, Smiling Usain Bolt was born.
Always a fan of a rising meme, the Ellen Show‘s Twitter account tried to get in on the action late Monday by tweeting out a digitally altered image of the host with Smiling Bolt. There’s one problem, though: She’s riding him.
This is how I’m running errands from now on. #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/gYPtG9T1ao
— Ellen DeGeneres (@EllenDeGeneres) August 15, 2016
While fans on Twitter were all about the original Smiling Bolt, Ellen‘s contribution was widely received as racially insensitive:
so the first thing that pops in your head when looking at this pic is "oh let me jump onto his back like he's a common mule"?
— Horatio (@Jhoratio) August 15, 2016
https://twitter.com/daibyday/status/765330890503446528
https://twitter.com/MiQL/status/765336547273027584
As of Tuesday afternoon, the tweet is still up and Ellen has not provided comment. The show did follow up with a second Bolt tweet, however, highlighting a previous appearance the Olympian made on the program.
Update 3:05pm CT, Aug. 16: DeGeneres herself responded to the controversy via Twitter:
I am highly aware of the racism that exists in our country. It is the furthest thing from who I am.
— Ellen DeGeneres (@EllenDeGeneres) August 16, 2016
H/T Mic