The Essential Guide to Viral Crying Memes: Meanings, Uses, and Origins

Dive deep into The Essential Guide to Viral Crying Memes: Meanings, Uses, and Origins with expert analysis.

The definitive origin point for modern tear-streaked memes happened on September 11, 2009. Associated Press photographer Stephan Savoia stood inside Springfield's Symphony Hall as Michael Jordan stepped to the lectern for his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Savoia caught Jordan weeping openly as the crowd delivered a prolonged standing ovation. Jordan's eyes pooled over, cheeks flushed burgundy, and tears streamed down his face.

For nearly three years, Savoia's photograph lived as a conventional piece of wire journalism. That changed around 2012, when message board posters on sports forums and users tracked across Know Your Meme history began cutting out Jordan's tearful face and superimposing it over losing athletes, defeated politicians, and bankrupt corporations.

By 2015, the visual had achieved complete ubiquity across sports twitter reactions. The image morphed into a versatile reaction GIF template applied within seconds of an NBA playoff elimination or a botched fourth-quarter pass. The cultural footprint grew so massive that Jordan's tearful expression secured a nomination for GIF of the Year at the 9th Shorty Awards, cementing its status as an immortal digital symbol of crushing defeat. Jordan acknowledged the image publicly years later during Kobe Bryant's 2020 memorial service, joking that he would now have to live with another meme of himself crying.