Memes can take many shapes, but all too often they take the shape of an actual human who walks this earth and is forever associated with a certain idea that may have nothing to do with them. Sometimes it can work out, like Success Kid using his fame to help his dad get a kidney transplant, sometimes it can be neutral, like how Ermahgerd Girl seems to be mostly burdened with laughing at herself, and sometimes it can be terrible, like it was for the woman in a before and after glamor make up shot. And now we must deliberate the case of Jerry Messing, better know as Fedora Guy:
https://twitter.com/NewsReddit/status/479611693543456768Messing was a successful child actor, in movies and on TV. He was on Freaks and Geeks and played Pugsley in Addams Family Reunion:
https://twitter.com/asergioam/status/677531231102332929In 2004 he took some fresh head shots and as a goof, put on the infamous hat. Ruh-roh. The pic made its way to Reddit and quickly became associated with all sorts of things that have nothing to do with Messing. He's now the face that is memed to criticize Men's Rights Activists and MRA's hated enemy White Knights (dudes that defend women online), as well as any kind of guy who might be seen as pathetic, nerdy, virginal, whatever. BuzzFeed interviewed him about how he deals with it all, and basically, he just stays off the damn Internet:
I’m certainly not thrilled with the communities the photo has come to represent...but it isn’t something I can really do anything about - so I don’t let it bother me.
For me, Internet use has been eighty percent gaming use and twenty percent socializing on a personal basis with long distance friends.
Though there is still Facebook. Messing has been inundated with questions and friend requests since he was identified as Fedora Guy, and has tried a couple of times to address it there:
His ending salvo, "No person should be judged by a measure they aren't even compliant to; a picture may be worth a thousand words, but it is not ideals," should be a watermark across every meme in existence. Though Messing encouraged people to share his message, the questions didn't slow down. He decided to have a little open forum chat in August, and people were surprisingly respectful and curious:
Though they definitely focused on the Fedora thing:
Currently, Messing is living in Los Angeles on disability and working on losing weight so he can get back on his feet and hopefully back into acting. If someone's face had to be stolen by the Internet, at least it happened to a person who has more going on than a virtual life.