Is The 'Tornado Selfie' Of A Man Saying 'Here It Comes' Real? The Meme Explained

A photo of a man taking a selfie with a tornado or dust devil in the Australian outback became the topic of much discussion in 2014 after many people were convinced that they really were looking at the antics of a fearless Aussie in his country's boondocks.

People quickly realized that the selfie was not entirely real, but memes featuring Mr. "Here It Comes" quickly became a staple in internet canon.

Here's where the insane Tornado Selfie meme actually came from, as well as how the exploitable image macro became so prevalent online.

Where Was The 'Tornado Selfie' Taken, And Was It Real?

The Tornado Selfie, to the disappointment of many internet users in 2014, was not, in fact, real. But the video itself was shot in Australia, by an Australian man no less, as part of a viral marketing campaign for the film Into the Storm.

The video was posted by YouTuber Terry Tufferson in August 2014 in a video titled, "Crazy Guy Runs Into Outback Tornado To Take Selfie," which has since racked up more than 22 million views.

People later found out that the video was a VFX trick created by The Woolshed Company (now known as RIOT Content) to promote the meteorological disaster film Into the Storm. By April 2020, the video had gathered over 18 million views from people who probably had no clue if what they were seeing was real or fake.

How Did The 'Tornado Selfie' Become A Meme?

A bunch of spoilsport media outlets covered the video upon its viral success and questioned its validity, but internet users writ large appeared fascinated by it. Redditor /u/montmuz was one of the first to share the selfie to the subreddit /r/funny, gathering over 2,000 notes in six years as it began to spread.

Other internet users messed with the video's original caption — the selfie paired with the line, "Australian man attempts to walk to the store" was a particular hit, seen on every site from FunnyJunk to Reddit and back to YouTube.

Other internet users edited the photo of Tufferson to give him a silly accessory or redrew him entirely to recreate a scene or joke from pop culture.

What Is The 'Here It Comes' Meme?

The image of the Tornado Selfie became a notable object labeling meme in 2019, oftentimes with the phrase "Here It Comes" slapped onto it.

A particularly viral iteration of the meme showed the image marked as "People Born in the 90s" and the tornado labeled "30s," gathering over 100,000 notes on Tumblr.

For the full history of the Tornado Selfie, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.