What Are 'Boomer Profile Pictures'? The 'Trump Supporters Profile Pictures' Meme Explained

If you stumbled in a comment section on Facebook chances are that you've seen a person wearing sunglasses inside a car commenting something rather peculiar or bluntly offensive.

Although it's not always the case, this group of boomers became known online for being Donald Trump supporters raging on other people's comment section. Thus, the Boomer Profile Pictures meme was popularized on social media. But how did the meme start? Here's all you need to know!

Where Does The 'Boomer Profile Pictures' Meme Come From?

The earliest known post of the "Boomer profile pictures" collection was uploaded on X by user @latenightposter on March 28th, 2019, in which he added the caption "No one: Trump supporters:" to describe the people in the image (shown below).

The following day on March 29th, Redditor u/Adelu1219 posted the meme to /r/pics^[8] with the title "A Hot take from local news comment section." This caption (and similar variations) was commonly used and reposted alongside the meme over the following years.

Why Boomers Often Use The Same 'Sunglass Inside A Car' As Their Profile Picture?

Redditors have thought of many theories to explain why boomers love the "sunglass selfie inside a car" as their profile picture. One theory in particular, posted on January 26th, 2020, by Redditor /u/Dr_Scientist_, says the sunglasses reminds him of an It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia scene (shown below) in which Mac puts on a pair and Charlie assumes the point of wearing sunglasses is so "The guy can't see how scared Mac is."

For the Redditor, "sunglasses create an emotional distance between the subject and their action," which allows boomers to express their toughness and enables them to come off "from not caring about other people."

What do you think is the origin/reason for the "Boomer profile picture" look?

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