Who Is the Guy Squinting Meme? the Surprising Real Story Behind the Web's Most Famous Face
By Marcus Vance
Most internet memes leave behind a trail of abandoned merch stores, awkward brand partnerships, and short-lived crypto projects. Scanlon took the opposite route. For two years, he refused to acknowledge the meme publicly, letting the trend run its natural course without feeding the algorithm.
He broke his silence in September 2019 with a calculated purpose. Two close friends had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the central nervous system. Scanlon was training for Bike MS, a 120-mile charity ride across Northern California. Realizing he held an unrivaled attention asset, he tweeted a side-by-side: the GIF on the left, his fundraising link on the right.
"Hi Internet," he wrote. "If this GIF has ever brought you joy, I humbly ask you to consider donating."
The response was immediate. Donations poured in from every continent, often in small $5 and $10 increments from strangers who simply appreciated the reaction GIF over the years. By 2025, Scanlon’s annual Bike MS campaign had crossed $1,100,000 in cumulative fundraising. By resisting the urge to cash out on t-shirts or low-tier sponsorships, he turned fleeting digital debris into permanent medical research capital.
Marcus Vance is a cybersecurity auditor and technology writer dedicated to educating the public about online safety, data privacy regulations, enterprise security, and emerging cyber threats.
