Kevin James is smirking, and the entire internet is loving it. Recently, a new wave of memes has taken over social media, with some leaving a lasting impact while others not even lasting a week. The most recent meme that blew up was of a photograph of a smirking Kevin James taken from the set of The King of Queens. This photo, which originated in 1998, has resurfaced lately as netizens used the meme alongside various hypothetical Kevin James scenarios to elicit a good chuckle.
The photograph showcases Kevin Jamesstanding near a coffee machine and sporting a green open-button flannel, shrugging with his hands in his pocket and looking straight into the camera with a rather smug smirk. Most of the viral posts also proudly featured the gettyimages watermark on the image, which indicates that it is credited to the CBS Photo Archive. The picture was originally taken by Tony Esparza.
The viral image is a January 1, 1998, still shot from the set of the hit sitcom The King of Queens, starring Kevin James as delivery man, Doug Heffernan, and Leah Remini as his legal secretary wife, Carrie. The show ran for nine seasons from 1998 to 2007 and earned James a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
Kevin James takes over the internet as netizens share hilarious memes
There is a common caption pattern with a lot of the memes using the viral image. It starts with "you better not be" and is followed by a description of Kevin James in the picture, after which it ranges from "stock photo getty images nervous" to "shy and bashful" and ending with "when I get there." Sometimes, it even gets reversed to "you must be," followed by another James description and ending with "if you think we f**kin."
According to Know Your Meme, the first time the image was used as a meme was on September 21, 2023, when X user @ChampagneAnyone posted the image alongside the caption, "me after 1 double rum and diet." The image has went on to amass over 2 million views and 24,000 likes at the time of writing this article.
Just like the blue smurf cat took over TikTok, netizens went haywire over the meme, and it was suddenly the only thing on everyone's X feed. People added a variety of captions to add to the sheer simplistic comedy of the meme while some even made many self-aware memes using the image.
However, not everyone was pleased with the sudden rise in popularity of the meme. Some people were annoyed at a shrugging Kevin James popping up all the time on their timelines. Moreover, some people, who were also annoyed by the picture, shared the same picture to follow the trend.
As of now, Kevin James has not responded to his picture becoming a meme. Interestingly, on September 21, the same day the meme was created, The King of Queens celebrated its 25-year anniversary, which was commemorated by James and Remini on social media.
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