A meme template is a reusable base image or layout, such as the 2015 stock photo behind Distracted Boyfriend, that people recaption to make new jokes. Its fixed structure lets each version be read at a glance.
Templates are the building blocks of the wider meme ecosystem, and the stories behind the best-known ones show how a single picture becomes shared vocabulary.
How a meme template works
The oldest ancestor of the modern template is the image macro. Wikipedia’s entry on the format identifies lolcats, pictures of expressive cats paired with text, as “the first notable occurrence of image macros”, and notes that lolcats and similar images spread beyond their original communities beginning in 2007. Those early pictures set the pattern: one fixed image, one swappable caption.
A template therefore has two parts. The fixed part is the picture, with its faces, poses and layout. The variable part is the text or labels that people add. The fixed part carries the emotion, such as smugness, betrayal or triumph, so the caption only has to supply the topic. This is also why a template differs from a meme format, which describes the broader structure of a joke, while a template is a specific reusable asset.
The same source says image macros “served as the foundation for newer, more complex, meme styles that emerged in the mid to late-2010s”, including object labelling. Distracted Boyfriend is one of the best-known object-labelling examples, covered below.
Distracted Boyfriend: a stock photo from 2015
The Distracted Boyfriend photograph was taken in mid-2015 in Girona, Catalonia, Spain, by the Barcelona photographer Antonio Guillem. It was a stock image, shot to represent infidelity in a playful way, and it sat in a photo library until January 2017 before anyone is known to have used it as a joke. The photographer has said the shoot aimed to capture the concept of infidelity “in a playful and fun way”, which explains why the poses read so clearly even without text. That clarity is what a template needs: a viewer should grasp the situation before reading a single label.
According to Wikipedia’s account, the first known use as a meme was posted to a Turkish progressive rock Facebook group in January 2017. The image reached English-language Twitter on February 2, 2017, and the original stock photograph later drew almost 30,000 likes on Instagram. The big surge came on August 19, 2017, when a Twitter user labelled the man “the youth”, and a copy of that post gathered more than 35,000 retweets.
The template’s strength is its three-way structure. The boyfriend, the girlfriend and the passing woman each take a label, so a single image can express a choice, a betrayal or a trend. Business commentators used it to describe car-maker mergers, and the Wikipedia article lists a Renault, Nissan and Fiat Chrysler version. Early variations also reused other frames from Guillem’s shoot, and later ones swapped in the 1761 painting David Garrick Between Tragedy and Comedy to make the same joke with different characters.
Success Kid: a beach photo that became a brand
Success Kid began as a family snapshot. Laney Griner uploaded the photo of her son Sammy to Flickr on 31 August 2007 and titled it “Why I oughta…”, according to Wikipedia.
The picture’s meaning changed over time. In 2011 it gained popularity as the “I Hate Sandcastles” anchor meme, which suggested the boy had just wrecked another child’s sandcastle. Laney Griner disliked that reading because her son loved sandcastles, but she embraced the later “Success Kid” reading, in which the clenched fist and determined face signal self-congratulation after a small win.
It is also an unusual case of a template owned by the family in the photo. Laney Griner licensed the picture to Getty Images, then pulled it after licensing complications and licensed it herself. She registered the copyright in 2012. The family has since seen the image used in advertising and politics, and has objected to unapproved uses, including a 2020 cease and desist letter to US Representative Steve King.
The template also had a real-world effect. On 14 April 2015, Griner started a GoFundMe campaign with a $75,000 goal to cover medical costs for her husband Justin, who was on dialysis. After Reddit picked it up, donations passed $83,000, which shows that a template’s audience can be mobilised as well as amused.
What makes a template last?
Both examples above outlasted the moment of their first viral spread because they pass three tests. The emotion is readable without the caption, the layout leaves room for many different topics, and the image can be reinterpreted without losing its core. Success Kid moved from a sandcastle joke to a triumph joke, and Distracted Boyfriend moved from infidelity to politics and business.
Templates that depend on one topic tend to fade once that topic does. Those with a flexible slot for labels, which fans of the exploitable meme concept will recognise, can be refilled indefinitely. An exploitable image is designed, intentionally or by accident, to be modified.
The Distracted Boyfriend case also shows how long a template can sit dormant. The photo existed from 2015, took off in 2017, and kept producing variations after that, because its structure never needed updating.
Using and crediting templates responsibly
Most templates are photographs that belong to someone. The Distracted Boyfriend image was a commercial stock photo, and Success Kid is a copyrighted family picture registered in 2012. Reposting a meme in conversation is one thing, but placing a template in an advertisement is another, and the Griner family’s legal letters show that rights holders do enforce their claims.
Practical habits help. Check where the image came from, avoid using a private person’s face for commercial purposes, and prefer templates that are cartoons or openly licensed. When writing about a template, name its original photographer or uploader where known, as with Antonio Guillem and Laney Griner here.
Frequently asked questions
What is a meme template?
A meme template is a reusable image or layout that people recaption. The Distracted Boyfriend stock photo from 2015 is a typical case, since the same picture was relabelled by countless users after it went viral in August 2017.
What was the first meme template?
No single image holds that title, but Wikipedia describes lolcats as the first notable occurrence of image macros, and they spread widely beginning in 2007.
Who owns the Success Kid photo?
Laney Griner, the photographer and Sammy Griner’s mother, registered the copyright in 2012, according to Wikipedia, and has licensed it to advertisers since.
When did Distracted Boyfriend go viral?
The image went viral on August 19, 2017, after a Twitter post labelled the man “the youth”, although the first known meme use dates to January 2017.
