Internet Culture

The ‘white blinking guy’ practices some new blinks for TV

He’s not the famous actor you probably thought he was.

Photo of Tiffany Kelly

Tiffany Kelly

blinking guy

The white guy blinking is a widely shared reaction gif used to express astonishment or bewilderment. It was the second most popular gif in 2017, with 226 million views. And now the man in the gif, Drew Scanlon, will forever be immortalized as “blinking guy.”

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Scanlon recently appeared on “Good Morning America” during a segment on the top memes and gifs of this year. He talked briefly about his surprise internet fame, while the caption “Drew Scanlon, Blinking Guy” appeared below. The internet loved this title.

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https://twitter.com/captaintrash/status/943905417020633088

https://twitter.com/FuckJerry/status/944247643332661248

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Scanlon also embraced it.

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And he revealed the behind-the-scenes work he had to do for the GMA segment.

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That’s right, he had to blink on command.

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The reveal of Scanlon as the “blinking guy” disappointed some people who thought that the man in the gif was actually The Princess Bride‘s Cary Elwes or Dexter‘s Michael C. Hall or Parenthood‘s Peter Krause.

https://twitter.com/Jessi_monster/status/944262764897370113

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Others were disappointed that Scanlon looks different now than he does in the gif, which originated from a video game live-stream in 2013.

https://twitter.com/sometots/status/944103822267269120

We like to think that Scanlon would blink in surprise at that assertion.

 
The Daily Dot