Beast Boy / Guy Holding Up Four Fingers

About

Beast Boy, also known as Guy Holding Up Four Fingers and 4's up Guy, refers to an image of Instagram user freebandtez doing the 4's Up hand gesture which is photoshopped to make him look like various characters, most notably the Teen Titans character Beast Boy. In April 2022, the photograph gained virality as source material for image captions, with jokes often revolving around the number four. In June 2022, the image regained popularity on TikTok, and later on the internet whole.

Origin

Prior to October 24th, 2021, Instagram^[13] user freebandtez posted several photographs of himself holding up four fingers in what is known as 4's Up. Prior to October 24th, 2021, Instagram user @cdk_tezz posted a now-deleted meme in which the photograph was captioned, "me after i'm asked what 2+2 is." On October 24th, 2021, Instagram^[1][2] users yungtibetsoulja and sssnark made the two earliest reposts of the meme (photograph and meme shown below, left and right).

Spread

On November 3rd, 2021, Redditor^[3] PowerfulMasterOz reposted the image, with the post gaining over 100 upvotes in /r/antimeme in six months. On November 12th, TikToker^[4] @y7nko included the meme in a meme compilation video that received over 259,100 views and 60,600 likes in five months.

Apart from reposts, the image did not see significant spread until March 8th, 2022, when Twitter^[5] user @suuunx5 posted an edited version of the image in which the boy was made to look like the Teen Titans character Beast Boy. The post gained over 790 retweets and 5,500 likes in one month. In the following days, the post was widely circulated through reposts on Instagram^[6] and other social media. For example, on March 10th, 2022, Instagram user squidysgalaxy reposted the meme, with the post gaining over 42,600 likes in one month. Also on March 10th, Twitter^[7] user @izzyegi posted another Teen Titans joke based on the image that also went viral in the following weeks (shown below, right),

On March 16th, 2022, Twitter^[8] user @Fuzzy_Cactus posted another edit of the image in which the boy was given extra fingers. The tweet (shown below, left) gained over 80 retweets and 600 likes.

Following the viral spread of the @suuunx5's and @izzyegi's memes, in mid-April 2022, the images achieved virality in image caption memes, particularly with jokes centered around the numbers four and seven. For example, on April 12th, 2022, Twitter^[9] user @wrxghxul poster a meme that received over 800 retweets and 4,600 likes in one week (shown below, right).

TikTok Trend

The image became increasingly popularized on TikTok in June 2022 in skits where Beast Boy is asked to show a number of something he needs, the image representing Beast Boy showing that number. For example, on June 15th, TikToker^[10] @dontknowhatiname posted a video using the image, gaining over 474,000 views in a day (shown below).

Also on June 15th, TikToker^[11] @kaiizuuu__ posted a similar video, gaining over 684,000 views in under 24 hours (shown below, left). On the same day, TikToker^[12] @wackaballz posted a video where a teacher asks Beast Boy what 2+2 is, using the image, gaining over 282,000 views in under 24 hours (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References