Edit #263,632 - Hide The Pain Harold

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_[Major rewrite coming though]_
 
 
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h2. About
 
 
<b>Hide The Pain Harold</b>, and sometimes just <b>"Harold"</b>, is the name given to an old man from stock photos, whose face appears to indicate a certain amount of pain and/or uncomfortableness. 
 
 
h2. Origin
 
 
The earliest known archived thread, where Harold first got attention, can be found on Facepunch, dating back to 2011. On September 13th, a user Greenen72, posted stock photos with the old man[1], originally from the site DreamsTime due to pictures having the site's watermark on them.
 
 
<br><center>!{height:161px;}http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/839/197/f99.jpg! !{height:161px;}http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/839/198/081.jpg! 
 
!{height:200px;}http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/839/199/8a9.jpg!</center></br>
 
 
h2. Spread
 
 
On October 23rd, 2011, a Facebook page for Hide the Pain Harold[3] was created. On May 7th, 2014, a Reddit user Ry0master uploaded a thread from 4chan's /b/ board[4], where an anon was posting a sad story about Harold. On September 7th, 2014 an Imgur user SomeShitbag posted a series of pictures with comments underneath them, depicting Harold's story[2]. In less than the month, the post gained over 15,700 upvotes. On September 10th, a Youtuber ChinnyxD uploaded the story, narrated through text-to-speech. 
 
 
<br><center><iframe width="375" height="250" src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/6eusqf33568" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></br>
 
 
<br>On October 31st, 2013, a sub-reddit for Harold, /r/youdontsurf[6], was created. On sites like MemeCenter[5], stock photos featuring Harold have been edited to image macros, mostly used for sex or similar kinds of jokes.</br>
 
 
h2. Examples
 
 
<center>!{height:200px;}http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/839/180/b22.jpg! !{height:200px;}http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/839/061/260.jpg! !{height:170px;}http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/839/179/a03.png!
 
!{height:188px;}http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/839/183/409.png! !{height:188px;}http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/838/619/3c8.jpg! !{height:188px;}http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/839/182/45a.gif!</center>
 
 
h2. External References
 
 
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fn1. Facepunch - "original post":http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1124864
 
 
fn2. Imgur - "Hide-the-pain-Harold":http://imgur.com/gallery/KjtbV
 
 
fn3. Facebook - "Hide the Pain Harold":https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hide-the-Pain-Harold/259512860761226?sk=timeline
 
 
fn4. Reddit - "Anon tells the story of Hide-the-Pain-Harold":http://www.reddit.com/r/4chan/comments/24ww6n/anon_tells_the_story_of_hidethepainharold/
 
 
fn5. MemeCenter - "Hide the pain Harold search results":http://www.memecenter.com/search?query=hide+the+pain+harold
 
 
fn6. Reddit - "/r/youdontsurf":http://www.reddit.com/r/youdontsurf
 
 
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