Many of these folks were complete unknowns before going viral, so here’s how one utterly normal moment made them famous.
Ken Bone
Audience member Ken Bone stood up during the second 2016 U. S. presidential town hall debate, wearing a bright red Izod sweater, and asked a serious question regarding energy policy.
His sunny personality, mustache, and sweater made him an Internet darling during a divisive election season. He became a meme overnight, appearing on late-night shows and scoring national advertisement offers.
Alex from Target
2014: Target cashier Alex was ringing up a customer’s groceries when another shopper took his photo without him knowing. The photo was tweeted, gaining hundreds of thousands of followers in less than 24 hours with the hashtag #AlexFromTarget.
Alex soon found himself on The Ellen DeGeneres Show for doing absolutely nothing besides showing up to work.
Ghyslain Raza (“Star Wars Kid”)
Back in 2002, Canadian high school student Ghyslain Raza recorded himself goofing around with a golf ball retriever as a lightsaber in his school’s media center. He forgot the videotape in the media center, and it was uploaded online by other students.
The video became one of the earliest examples of a viral video on the internet, accumulating tens of millions of views before social media was created.
William Hung
In 2004, aspiring civil engineer William Hung went on American Idol and gave an off-key but passionate rendition of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs.” Judge Simon Cowell tore him apart, but Hung smiled and stated he didn’t regret giving it his best shot.
Viewers loved him for being so unapologetically himself. He soon got a record deal, his debut album hit the Billboard charts, and he became a regular fixture on talk shows.
Ted Williams (“The Man with the Golden Voice”)
In 2011, Ted Williams, an unhoused man standing on a highway ramp in Columbus, Ohio, with a cardboard sign that referenced his radio voice, was filmed by a local reporter. Upon request from the reporter, Williams sang with his smooth professional baritone voice for the camera.
The resulting video became viral worldwide in a matter of days. Williams was inundated with offers for voiceover work, commercials with major brands, and was offered permanent housing.
Salt Bae (Nusr-Et Gökçe)
Turkish butcher Nusr-Et Gökçe rose to international stardom in 2017 when he uploaded a 36-second clip called “Ottoman Steak” to Instagram. In it, he sliced up meat casually while theatrically allowing a mound of coarse salt to cascade down his arm onto the plate.
This flamboyant display became an internet meme overnight, and he used his new notoriety to take his upscale steakhouse empire global.
Antoine Dodson
When an attempted burglar invaded Antoine Dodson’s house in Huntsville, Alabama, in 2010, he was interviewed by local TV news and provided an extremely excited eyewitness account warning people in his community.
Artists from The Gregory Brothers turned the interview into a viral song called “Bed Intruder Song” by autotuning his lyrics. It became an international hit, selling millions of copies on iTunes and accumulating hundreds of millions of views on YouTube. Dodson used his windfall from song royalties to relocate his family to a safer environment.
Laina Morris (“Overly Attached Girlfriend”)
In 2012, Laina Morris uploaded a video of herself singing a personalized parody to Justin Bieber’s song “Boyfriend” as an entry into a Bieber fan contest.
Her glazed-over facial expression became screenshotted and memed into what is now the “Overly Attached Girlfriend” meme template.
“Hide Your Pain Harold” / András Arató
Hungarian electrical engineer András Arató volunteered to pose for a stock photography shoot in 2010. Someone eventually stumbled across the stock photos online and realized his smile looked like a polite attempt to hide anguish.
The resulting internet meme named “Hide Your Pain Harold” became one of the internet’s most famous faces, earning him paid public speaking appearances and international ad campaigns.
Charles Ramsey
On May 6, 2013, Cleveland man Charles Ramsey was eating a McDonald’s hamburger when he heard noises from an adjacent home, where he assisted in freeing three kidnapped women.
His candid and colorful interview with local news reporters recounted the experience with visceral comedic timing and unforgettable personality.
Sammy Griner (“Success Kid”)
In 2007, Laney Griner uploaded a photo of her son Sammy, who was 11 months old at the time, while he was at the beach trying to eat sand out of a handful.
Sammy had clenched his fist while looking intensely at the camera, resulting in what would become one of the most recognizable meme faces to celebrate minor triumphs today: Success Kid. The family would later use his unexpected internet fame to crowdfund over $100,000 for Sammy’s father to undergo a kidney transplant.
Robert Kelly and family
Political scientist Robert Kelly was conducting a serious live BBC interview from his house in South Korea in 2017, when his toddler boldly strode into frame. Baby brother came crawling after her in a walker, and their mother Kim Jung-a swiped into view, scooping them both up. The hilarious few seconds went viral and made the family famous overnight.
Left Shark (Bryan Gaw)
At Katy Perry’s Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show in February 2015, there were two dancers wearing blue foam suits in the shape of sharks on either side of Perry.
While Right Shark danced to their highly choreographed routine, Left Shark’s dancer, Bryan Gaw, missed his cues and started waving his fins all over the place. Left Shark ended up stealing the halftime show and becoming a viral pop-culture meme.
Chloe Clem
Chloe Clem became an overnight sensation thanks to one unforgettable unimpressed face. In a family video taken in 2013, Chloe’s older sister bursts into tears of joy when she finds out they’re going to Disneyland. But Chloe just stares off to the side at the camera, looking baffled. Her millisecond glare turned into “Side-Eyeing Chloe,” one of the web’s longest-lasting reaction memes.
Ted Haggard/Antoine /”Damn Daniel” (Daniel Lara)
In 2016, high schooler Joshua Holz filmed his friend Daniel Lara many times walking through campus while wearing white Vans and yelling “Damn, Daniel!” out of Snapchat.
He combined the clips into one video and uploaded it to Twitter, where it got over 45,000 retweets in several days. The phrase got both teenagers featured on national news and earned Daniel a lifetime supply of shoes from Vans.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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