What Is The 'Wood Sitting On Bed' Shock Image? The Barry Wood Clickbait Prank Explained

An image of a well-endowed man sitting naked at the edge of a bed has been a bait-and-switch shock image classic on the internet since at least 2015. If you haven't come across the image yet, it's only a matter of time. Gone are the days when the worst thing a blue link could show you was a Rick Astley song — these days, that might blue link might take you to what kids call Wood Sitting on A Bed.

Where Does The Image Of Wood Sitting Come From?

An image many people call "Wood sitting" is of an adult film actor named Barry Wood. In 2012, Barry Wood posed for a photo that went up on a gay adult film website that was tailored toward older men. The image shows him sitting naked at the edge of the bed, with his legs apart and his manhood on display.

Sometimes after the image was first published, it was photoshopped to exaggerate the size of certain features, and this version of the image went on to become an internet prank classic.

How Do People Use The Image Of Barry Wood In Their Pranks?

A classic early use of Barry Wood's photo is in the form of what is called a "bait-and-switch" prank. This would take the form of someone sharing a link with an innocent caption like a tweet from 2015 that read, "Love my parents and my new Jeep!" While one would assume that the link would go to an image of said parents and Jeep, the link would instead send you to a shocking image of a naked man.

In the years following 2015, sending your friends the image of Barry Wood became a classic teen texting prank. This trend was exacerbated by news about the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with several people posting links to COVID "resources" but sending people to an image of Barry Wood instead.

Who Is Barry Wood?

Barry Wood's real name is believed to be Wardy Joubert III, as discovered by a Vice article published on March 17th. Wardy reportedly died of heart complications in 2016, and he was survived by his family and ex-girlfriend, who has known about the Sitting Wood text pranks, and found it to be an amusing anecdote about Wardy's life that brought them closer together.

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