Who Is Jamar Pittman? The 'Was Pops Wrong For This' Video And Meme Explained

A video of a young teen talking about his classmate's death after a school shooting has been sidetracked by internet users who found his father's behavior in the news clipping extremely bizarre. When young JeVon Pittman tearfully recounted the loss of his schoolmate, his father, Pastor JaMar D Pittman made a gesture and sound that somehow became a laughter reaction meme entirely decontextualized from the original clip.

But the memes didn't stop with ironic RapTV-like memes joking about him snorting with laughter at his son. JaMar, now dubbed "Pops," saw people combing through his YouTube channel and using his likeness in AI-enabled ViggleAI videos online.

Here's how Was Pops Wrong For This became the new IShowSpeed Trying Not To Laugh meme.

Who Is JaMar Pittman, And What Is The 'Was Pops Wrong For This' Meme?

In December 2021, young JeVon Pittman, a student at Oxford High School in Michigan gave a tearful account of how he lost two of his classmates in a school shooting. At the 4:38-minute mark in the video, JeVon says that his dad is his hero. The camera pans over to his father, JaMar Pittman, who's seen holding back tears and then crying into his shirt.

Unfortunately for JaMar, his sob and thumb point toward his son was misconstrued as a snort of laughter by many internet users, especially after a TikTok by @axmuus recaptioned the video with, "😭😭 I bussed out laughing soon as I seen the daddy, cause it be the serious moments where u don’t wanna laugh but yo body can’t control it 😭😭."

The video did not receive meme attention until April 2023 when a since-deleted TikToker named @axmuus posted a long clip of the CNN segment. The TikTok was then reposted by X^[3] user @dchocolatedoll on April 3rd, 2023, who captioned it, "😭😭 I bussed out laughing soon as I seen the daddy, cause it be the serious moments where u don’t wanna laugh but yo body can’t control it 😭😭," gaining over 4,000 likes in a few hours (shown below). The tweet was later deleted after going viral.

By April 2023, the now-recontextualized video had made the rounds enough times for people to be convinced that JaMal had barked out a laugh at his son's statements. Instagram user @hiphopties posted the video alongside an image that read, "WAS POPS WRONG FOR THIS?" The post gathered over 85,000 likes for its RapTV-style caption.

X Usage In Memes

By 2023, JaMar Pittman's news interview became a reaction meme used to express a burst of laughter on Twitter, as seen in posts like the one by @crackcobain__ shown below.

https://t.co/wsVHL6Lga1 pic.twitter.com/Kn6l8vchP3

— BASED SAVAGE (@crackcobain__) June 2, 2023

Moreover, JaMar Pittman's own internet habits became the subject of memes and jokes after people kept unearthing new photos and videos of him and his family, including one of Pittman dressed up in costume.

More memes of people celebrating JaMar Pittman's unfortunately timed thumb point were shared in 2023.

hood classic man😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/2EmrITi7bH

— NFL Youngboy (@nflyb15) March 7, 2024

By June 2024, people began comparing the clip of Pops "laughing" with the IShowSpeed Trying Not To Laugh meme, saying one is better than the other.

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For the full history of Was Pops Wrong For This? / JaMar Pittman, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.