About

Javert Reaction GIFs, also known as Javert Your Eyes, is a series of reaction images based on a scene from the 2012 musical film adaptation of Les Misérables in which the main antagonist is seen staring through a window with a distressed look on his face. Similar to other well-known reaction GIF memes, these images are often featured in My Face When style posts, especially on the image-sharing community Imgur.

Origin

The feature film adaptation of the 1980 musical Les Misérables, which is based on Victor Hugo's 1862 French historical novel with the same name, was released on December 5th, 2012. In one scene from the film, the police inspector Javert (played by Russell Crowe) is shown peering through a window while wearing a bicorn hat (shown below).^[3]

On April 7th, 2013, Imgur^[4] user Mysterion1209 uploaded an animated GIF of the scene as a reaction image in a post titled “When I am too old to play in the ball pit,” which gained over 7,000 points and 170 comments in the next two years (shown below). On the same day, Redditor ghair submitted the GIF to the /r/reactiongifs^[6] subreddit, where it gathered more than 2,200 votes (96% upvoted) prior to being archived.

Spread

On June 2nd, 2013, Redditor GeneralHales submitted the GIF in a post titled "MRW the parents have company over and I want to get into the kitchen" to /r/reactiongifs.^[7] Before it was archived, the post received upwards of 2,700 votes (93% upvoted). On November 29th, Redditor Goorab posted the GIF with a title describing his reaction to being scolded for trying to "participate in the toy lightsaber battle" at Thanksgiving dinner to /r/reactiongifs,^[8] where it garnered over 3,800 votes (96% upvoted) prior to being archived. On November 30th, 2014, Imgur user MjingaSana revived the GIF by uploading a rotated version titled "MRW my Mom says I can't open the oven to see if the turkey is done" (shown below, left). On December 1st, 2014, Imgur^[9] user gismar uploaded a combined version of the GIF, featuring the character Worf from the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation wearing a bicorn hat (shown below, right).

On December 9th, 2014, Imgur^[2] user Zechling uploaded a large compilation album titled "How to Javert", including many popular examples along with information regarding the meme's spread. That day, the /r/javertgifs^[5] subreddit was created for users to submit notable Javert GIF examples. In the coming days, the tech news sites Mashable^[10] and The Daily Dot^[11] published articles on the animated GIF series.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References