The Lucky Luciano meme, aka “You know I had to do it to em,” shows Luciano in a pink polo and white shorts standing on a sidewalk with his hands folded in front of him. One of the more iconic memes of the 2010s, the image shared by a Twitter user going as Lucky Luciano took off and inspired many Photoshop editions and imitations over several years.
This joke became so popular that it spawned lore, especially after Tampa police arrested Luciano in 2018 on drug-related charges.
What is the Lucky Luciano meme?
The original meme is a photo of Luciano standing on a Florida neighborhood sidewalk in a white collared shirt and matching shorts with a belt and brown loafers. His hands are folded over his stomach, showing off his gold watch, as he smiles for the camera.
Luciano posted this photo with the comment “You know I had to do it to em.” Over the years, people have referenced this meme either with this phrase or the photo alone. For a while, any image of a person, fictional character, statue, etc. with hands folded like this could end up a target of the meme.
Meme origins
Luciano originally posted the photo of himself with the comment on September 2, 2014. It sat on his account, @LuckyLuciano17k, for nearly two years before it would become one of the most well-known memes to date.
On July 1, 2016, user @ExhelonWinter reposted the photo with a caption meant to mock affluent white hip-hop fans.
“Young thug is so gay, I listen to real hip hop,” the text read. “You know G Easy? When its dark out lowkey a classic bro.”
As the meme took off, Twitter users tracked down the source of the photo and began to use the original caption. Both accounts would soon switch to private as the joke’s popularity and reach skyrocketed.
Photoshop edits, variations, and spread
The Lucky Luciano meme followed two paths as it spread across social media channels. The initial trend had people Photoshopping their favorite celebrities, fictional characters, or selves into the original photo with the same pose or put Luciano into classic settings like one of the hotel hallways from The Shining.
The second version of the meme was like an ongoing game of Where’s Waldo? Social media users found more and more subtle ways to hide Luciano in other photos and screenshots until he became an eerie figure haunting all of our favorite films and shows like the least intimidating ghost ever.
Arrest and drug charges
On July 29, 2018, Luciano created a GoFundMe campaign to fund bail and legal costs while accusing the police of unfairly targeting and unlawfully detaining him.
“I recently got arrested over BS,” he wrote. “I was followed, stalked and detained unlawfully by officers who found trying to ruin my life. They found this funny, amusing and tormented me the entire time. I sat in jail and was given no bond, my charges were upped dishonestly, and slapped with a bunch of costs.”
After six years, the campaign has raised $245 out of a requested $7,000. Internet sleuths tracked down the charges against him, which listed possession of a controlled substance including enough cannabis to suspect “intent to sell.”
It’s unclear how this all panned out for Luciano. There are no reports of a lawsuit against the Tampa police by the man behind the meme and no updates on the campaign.
Pete Buttigieg revives the Lucky Luciano meme
On August 20, 2020, Pete Buttigieg gave the meme new life when he struck a pose nearly identical to the one from the iconic photo. On one of the last nights of that year’s Democratic National convention, someone snapped a photo of the former presidential candidate standing straight with his hands folded over his stomach.
He wasn’t smiling, but the similarities were enough to have people comparing him to Luciano in droves. Many wondered if the pose was intentional, but Buttigieg never addressed the rumors.
Meme examples
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