Black Man Crying / Thank God For My Reefer
Featured Episode
About
Thank God for My Reefer is a viral video of a man crying profusely after smoking a blunt, which has been included in many remixes and parodies. Screencaps of the clip have inspired the 'How old is' Google searches meme format.
Origin
The earliest upload of the video was posted by Facebook user DjTickzzy [1] on November 30th, 2016 with the title "Man starts crying bc his weed is so good 😂😂" (mirror below). However, the original video was uploaded by Instagram[2] user hoodnews24u sometime in November 2016. On December 3rd, 2016, @hoodnews4u posted a screenshot of the video from Facebook with of 18.1 million views (screenshot below, right).
Spread
In the following days, the clip was reuploaded to different social media platforms. On December 2nd, YouTube channel nikbistro2[2] posted the video gathering over 1 million views in less than four years. In the next day, YouTuber Zehn 997[3] did the same and gained over 2.8 million views.
Also, on December 2nd, a now-deleted Reddit user shared the video in the subrredit r/videos.[4] The post got over 25,700 upvotes (78% upvote ratio) in less than 4 years.
On December 1st, 2016, YouTuber and musician MonoNeon[5] posted a musical parody (shown below, left) reaching over 58,000 views. Four days later, YouTuber Maurice Spears[6] uploaded another remix (shown below, right) which gathered over 50,000 views.
On February 12th, 2017, YouTuber Lyqe[7] posted a remix by superposing the video multiple times. The post has gathered over 11,000 views in less than 4 years.
On February 2nd, 2019, YouTube NirvanaPonyGr4m[9] posted a vocoded version of the clip, gaining over 9,000 views in less than a year.
'How Old Is' Google Searches
'How Old Is' Google Searches" refers to an exploitable image where a man in tears Googles a person or character, and after searching for the life expectancy of something else sharing the same name, concludes the former is close to the end of their life, which makes the man cry harder.
Interview with Know Your Meme
On February 11th, 2021, Know Your Meme interviewed Melvin Lawson about the origins of the viral video referenced in the meme, his history with internet culture and more.
Search Interest
External References
[2] YouTube – Thank God for my reefer! / Posted on 12-02-2016
[3] YouTube – Black Man Cries Over The Greatest Blunt / Posted on 12-03-2016
[4] YouTube – Dude smokes the best weed of his life, starts crying and records it. / Posted on 12-02-2020
[5] YouTube – MonoNeon: MAN STARTS CRYING BECAUSE HIS WEED IS GOOD! / Posted on 12-01-2016
[6] YouTube – Thank God for my reefer! REMIX 'Man crying over weed' / Posted on 12-05-2016
[7] YouTube – Thank God for my reefer! / Posted on 02-12-2017
[9] YouTube – Thank God For My Reefer Vocoded / Posted on 02-02-2019
[10] Instagram – @hoodnews24u's Post
[11] Instagram – @hoodnews24u's's Post
