The Kevin James meme, aka the King of Queens meme, is a photo of the actor on set smirking and shrugging with his hands in his pockets. It’s a versatile meme, used any time someone needs to express a coy demeanor or how they looked when they were caught doing something wrong.
The image became highly popular for joke purposes in 2023, leading James himself to react to the sensation the following year on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Meme basics:
- Meme Creator: Twitter user @ChampagneAnyone
- Meme Type: Image macro / reaction image
- First Appearance: Sept. 21, 2023
- Origin Source: CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images
- Used to Convey: Coyness, guilt, shyness, etc.
- Peak Popularity: October 2023
What is the Kevin James meme?
The meme consists of a stock photo from Getty Images taken by Tony Esparzam for CBS. In the photo, James is on the set of the TV series King of Queens, looking into the camera and shrugging his shoulders with a smirk that could be interpreted as shy or coy, possibly depending on how attractive you find the actor.
He is wearing a flannel button-up shirt with his hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans. Something about his posture and expression led social media users to start spreading the photo as a meme, finding his shrug and the look on his face funny enough to make it viral.
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Meme origins and spread
The photo first appeared on Getty Images on Jan. 1, 1998, with the description stating that Esparzam captured it in the “late 1990s” for the CBS Photo Archive. The image remained largely ignored for over 25 years before it became a reaction meme.
On Sept. 21, 2023, Twitter user @ChampagneAnyone posted the photo with the text “me after 1 double rum and diet.” The tweet had gained two million views and over 23K likes, kicking off a trend that reached the King of Queens stars and U.S. politicians.
The Kevin James meme spread from Twitter to all other social media platforms and became a popular one to mix with other memes as people Photoshopped the actor into anything they could think of.
Kevin James reacts to the meme
As it turns out, James was not thrilled to learn that this old photo had resurfaced and become a viral meme. He expressed this on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Jan. 23, 2024.
The actor let the photographer take all kinds of photos of him that day, too thrilled to be on set in the early days of the show to say no. He did at least ask Esparzam to make sure no one saw the photo that would become the meme, and the photographer assured him that everything would be fine.
“And then I said, ‘well, please bury that one,’” James explained. “And he says, ‘yeah, no worries, that won’t come back.’”
Notable use: Senator John Fetterman
Perhaps the most noteworthy use of this meme came from Democratic Senator John Fetterman. The senator first made a name for himself as the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, drawing attention for his casual dress and general demeanor as an everyman uninterested in the typical political politeness and tomfoolery.
When Pennsylvanians elected him to the federal senate, he again started showing up to work in his usual gray hoodie, shorts, and sneakers. Aghast, his fellow senators adopted a formal dress code in response, requiring men to wear a “coat, tie and slacks or other long pants.”
Fetterman responded to a tweet with the news that the resolution passed with nothing but the meme photo.
Meme examples
Related memes:
- History of the guess I’ll die meme
- Debby Ryan recreates iconic shy smile meme on TikTok
- The ‘Jamaican Smile’ meme is ripe and ready for public consumption
- The top Don Cheadle memes for any situation
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