Crying Jordan

2009

Date: 11 September 2009 (photograph); March 2016 (peak) · Place: Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Massachusetts · Figures: Michael Jordan, subject · Stephan Savoia, AP photographer · Tags: Sports, PhotoCutout, Reaction 01. The Induction Speech Stephan Savoia of the Associated Press photographs Michael Jordan crying during his Hall of Fame induction speech on 11 September 2009. The image is filed and forgotten. By 2012 it surfaces on sports forums as a cutout to caption any losing team's fans. By March 2016, around the NCAA tournament, Crying Jordan is the default photoshop applied to any human being who has just lost anything: Marco Rubio after Florida, Cam Newton after Super Bowl 50, every coach pulled off the floor, eventually Jordan himself when the Bulls lose. 02. The Face That Eats Outcomes ESPN runs an explainer in March 2016 quantifying Crying Jordan's takeover of sports Twitter as the dominant reaction format. Jordan himself comments only once, in 2016, that he finds it not bothering me. The image becomes the canonical demonstration that any sufficiently emotional photograph eventually becomes a face-swap mask. Sources • Stephan Savoia, AP photograph, 11 September 2009 • Justin Tinsley, The Undefeated/ESPN, 'How the Crying Jordan meme became the standard', 7 April 2016 • KnowYourMeme entry, 'Crying Jordan'