Celebrate Tenth Anniversary One Of The Most Viral Memes

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Another proof that time flies by is that one of the most successful memes in history has already celebrated its tenth anniversary. Its protagonist, Sammy Griner, has not only grown, but is now aware that, thanks to the portrait his mother took ten years ago, he was key in the search for a new kidney for his father.

To celebrate the ten years of that successful photograph, his mom published a photo composition of his son with the “before and after” this weekend. In both photos, the little boy appears in similar clothes and on the same beach where the original portrait was taken. Only this time, the young man does not appear eating sand. "Exactly 10 years later and he's still the best 'Boy Success' ever!" Said Laney Griner, his mother.

Ten years ago, when that portrait was taken, Griner was 11 months old and his family did not imagine that his face would be replicated millions of times by strangers, with allusions to the small (or great) successes of everyday life.

A few months later, that image began to be shared by MySpace users, month after month, until it reached a viral peak, according to Google Trends, in 2012.

Far from complaining about the diffusion of the face of his son, who was a minor, he took advantage of the sympathy that he generated among the users to get ahead in a difficult moment that they had to live after. So in 2015 they launched a campaign to find a kidney for their father, who was on daily dialysis. In just a week they gathered enzo.

In August 2015 Justin Griner, the boy's father underwent his kidney transplant surgery, which was a success.