Back in the lawless landscape of 2010s internet humor and the heyday of Advice Animals, memes weren't just jokes, they were mascots promoting different archetypes.

There was "Bad Luck Brian," forever doomed to fail. "Overly Attached Girlfriend," who loved you a little too much. Then, there was "Scumbag Steve" — the human embodiment of your least favorite acquaintance. He was the guy who drank your last beer and then crashed on your couch, totally uninvited.

But what happens when people start using your face to joke about being, well, a scumbag? That's exactly what happened to an unsuspecting man named Blake Boston back in 2011.

Here's a look at how Blake Boston became the meme we know today as "Scumbag Steve," and how he handled meme infamy.

What Is the 'Scumbag Steve' Meme, and How Did It First Go Viral?

Picture this: A teen with a ruddy face, standing in a doorway, fur-lined coat unzipped, flat-brimmed cap worn backwards, perched precariously on his head. His expression sits somewhere between smug and dazed.

A string of images featuring the photo was uploaded to Reddit’s /r/funny subreddit on January 20th, 2011. Each image came with an Impact font caption about the bloke's "scummy" habits, such as, "Asks to borrow a lighter, permanently," or, "Has a girlfriend, still hits on yours."

Thousands of Redditors recognized him immediately. Not Blake Boston, the actual human, but that guy.

That's how Scumbag Steve was born, with people pairing Boston's image with Impact font confessions of low-level social parasitism and shoddy behavior. He became a stand-in for that scummy friend you still keep around for some reason.

It didn’t matter who the guy in the photo really was, the meme had already flattened Boston into a stereotype. Unbeknownst to him, he had now been cast as the internet's reigning dirtbag.

So Who Is Scumbag Steve Actually, and Where Did the Photo Come From?

Turns out the guy the internet decided was the poster child for freeloading party crashers, Blake Boston, is fittingly from Boston. Back in the day, he used to rap under the name Weezy B and fronted a group called Beantown Mafia.

Plus, the infamous photo was never meant to become meme fodder. "Those pics on MySpace are all from my mom," Boston told Know Your Meme in a 2011 interview. "She thought she would do me a solid by makin' that s---. She was taking a photography class five years ago, and that's what she did. She even made the MySpace page."

Boston was 16 when the image was taken, in or around 2006. In a follow-up interview with us in 2021 for the meme's 10-year anniversary, he explained the outfit's origins with complete sincerity. "I got the hat at Lids," he said. "And I’m pretty sure the coat was from Marshalls. I thought it was cool with my Timberlands."

For Boston, the character the internet imposed on him wasn't too far off from his actual teenage persona. "Ya, I dressed hip-hop and was the first kid to wear a flat bill to school, which I got ragged on every day," he said. "I played lacrosse, I was in the special-ed room for my ADHD […] I was always havin' parties and supplying, if you know what I mean."

But despite the "Scumbag" title of his meme, Blake insists he never deserved it in the literal sense, telling us, "I don't steal, never have. In fact, I hate thieves … But was I a D-bag? Yeah, I guess."

How Did Blake First Find Out About the Meme, and What Was His Reaction to It?

Blake Boston first learned he had gone viral when strangers flooded his Facebook inbox with accusations that made no sense. "Dude, whose girlfriend did you sleep with?" one message asked. "You're such a scumbag. You stole my lighter."

Blake had no idea what they were talking about, and even less idea why they kept calling him "Steve."

"My name’s not Steve, but my dad is Steve, so I thought maybe they think I’m him," he later told Know Your Meme while recapping his initial experience. His girlfriend also saw the messages and assumed he had actually cheated. "My mom thought she ruined me because that was the picture she took of me. It was mayhem, absolute mayhem."

Boston didn't find the meme funny at first. "Who the f--- knew what a meme was?" he said, adding, "Didn't even know how to pronounce it."

His real-life identity circulated quickly, and so did his contact information. People began calling his phone, his girlfriend and even his family at all hours. Rude messages poured in, and the online trolls just wouldn't leave him alone. "I guess people can’t separate the meme from the real me in some cases," Boston said.

Despite the harassment, Blake Boston eventually made peace with his notoriety. "Even with D-bags like that, I have it good, really, cause I’ve got my family and my friends who know me," he said. "And no one can break that."

Did Blake Boston Ever Come Around To Embracing The Meme?

Blake Boston did eventually embrace his unexpected internet fame and even leveraged it to pursue his passion for music. In 2012, he released the track "Scumbag Steve Overture" on YouTube, which garnered over 1.2 million views in its first day, signaling his foray into the rap scene under his alias.

Boston's participation in events like ROFLCon and South by Southwest further solidified his presence in meme culture during the 2010s.

At ROFLCon, for instance, he was met with a throng of cheers and support, leading him to realize, "Holy c---, they really don't hate me," a moment that marked a turning point in his relationship with the meme.

Beyond performances, Boston engaged in various media appearances, including a commercial for Brisk Iced Tea, showcasing his willingness to embrace the meme persona in a lighthearted manner.

His interactions with fans also took a heartfelt turn. When a school teacher requested a congratulatory video for her students, Boston obliged, finding the experience heartwarming and indicative of the positive impact he could have.

In another notable gesture, Boston penned an open letter to the woman behind the Annoying Facebook Girl meme, offering advice on coping with unintended internet fame.

He wrote, "Just remember who you are. And that you know you're a decent kid. You're going to be in shock for a while when you see what people have written. But the most important and self-preserving thing you can do is know that it's not you. You can't take this personally."

What Has Blake Been up to in Recent Years, And Where Can I Find Him Online Today?

These days, Blake Boston has traded his flatbrim hat for a guitar and a spatula. According to his Instagram, he's been working as a line cook, a job he seems to genuinely enjoy, and playing music with the ambition of starting a band.

"Lately it's just being a dad, playing a lot of music and trying to start a band," he told Know Your Meme in our interview four years ago. He's less "Scumbag Steve," and more a guy who plays Alice in Chains covers in a dive bar on Thursday nights.

Still, meme fame never quite dies off. The crypto-fueled nostalgia boom of the 2020s gave Boston (and many other meme stars) something of a second act. He launched his own meme coin, $STEVE, and even sold a Scumbag Steve NFT that netted over $57,000.

By November 2024, he found himself at DogeDay in Japan, a real celebration of Kabosu (Doge) and many of the meme legends from that early era of internet culture.

There, he posed for photos with fellow viral artifacts like Bad Luck Brian, the Awkward White People Smile kid, and even Kabosu the Shiba Inu and her owner, Atsuko Sato.

You can find Blake Boston on his aptly named Instagram @irishdaddy617, and on his Twitter / X account @BlakeBoston617 if you're curious to follow what he's currently up to over a decade after he became a classic meme.

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For the full history of Scumbag Steve, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information. To see the rest of our "Where Are They Now" series, you can find them all here. Stay tuned for next week's editorial!

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