About

Brendan Fraser's Alimony refers to a series of jokes on various imageboards about American actor Brendan Fraser's alimony payments, which mock the actor's mental health with speculation that he is depressed and suicidal. The jokes are sometimes accompanied by an edited photo of Fraser with the dentist Gino DiGiannantonio's hair from The Barber image macro series and the phrase "Just fuck my shit up." The jokes also derived into a movement to help Fraser and revive his actor career.

Origin

On December 27th, 2007, Brendan Fraser announced that he and his wife Afton Smith were getting a divorce after nine years of marriage.^[4] In early 2013, Fraser petitioned the courts for a reduction of his alimony, asserting he was unable to meet the annual obligation of $900,000.^[1] On February 16th, 2015, a thread featuring an edited picture of Fraser with DiGiannantonio's hair and the post "I-is he gonna make it?" was submitted on 4chan's /tv/ board.^[5] The image was originally made by the Tumblr user stargates on December 10th and 12th, 2014.^[12][13]

Spread

The phrase "Just fuck my shit up" has been used as a forum game on 4chan, with one poster starting with "JUST" and others trying to follow in a combo, in a similar vein to Lankyposting. On April 11th, 2015, the board /just/ was created on 8chan^[3] for Brendan Fraser-related posts. On March 30th, 2015, YouTuber Beavan Cotterhill uploaded a video titled "Latest Brendan Fraser 2015 #savebrendanfraser #unfuckhisshit", featuring a song about Fraser and promoting the hashtags #savebrendanfraser^[8] and #unfuckhisshit (shown below, left).^[9] The next day, the @SaveBrendanFraser Twitter account was launched, which highlights edited photos of Fraser.^[7] On April 3rd, 2015, YouTuber Justin Cuck uploaded a video titled "Just Fuck My Shit Up – Help to save Brendan Fraser's career", featuring footage of Fraser with the song "Bring Me Back To Life" playing in the background. On April 17th, Redditor PointOfRecklessness submitted a post asking about the Fraser meme to the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[11] subreddit. The meme continues to be a popular topic on /tv/, with users discussing plans to revive Fraser's career and "un-fuck his shit".

#BringBackBrendan

On December 14th, 2016, the AOL BUILD Series YouTube channel posted an interview with Fraser conducted by host Ricky Camilleri, in which they discuss his role in the Showtime show The Affair (shown below, left). Three days later, YouTuber Cr1tikal reuploaded portions of the interview, commenting that Fraser appeared to be sad and calling upon viewers to help him be "happy" (shown below, right).

On December 18th, a Change.org^[14] petition was created titled "Bring Brendan Fraser back into film/television," to help get Fraser more acting roles. Within 48 hours, the petition received more than 11,200 signatures. On December 19th, a 4chan user posted a thread promoting the #BringBackBrendan campaign, encouraging viewers to sign the Change.org petition (shown below, right).^[15]

GQ Article

On February 22nd, 2018, GQ^[16] published an article titled "What Ever Happened To Brendan Fraser?", which described the AOL BUILD interview as "uncomfortable to watch," adding "what was was behind the sad Brendan Fraser meme was… sadness."

As it turns out, what was behind the sad Brendan Fraser meme was…sadness. His mother had died of cancer just days before the interview. “I buried my mom,” Fraser says. “I think I was in mourning, and I didn't know what that meant.” He hadn't done press in a while; suddenly he was sitting on a stool in front of an audience, promoting the third season of a show he'd barely been on. “I wasn't quite sure what the format was. And I felt like: Man, I got fucking old. Damn, this is the way it's done now?”

Additionally, the article contained a story about former HFPA president Philip Berk, who Fraser claimed inappropriately touched him on one occasion.

“His left hand reaches around, grabs my ass cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around.”

That day, the article reached the front page of the /r/movies^[18] subreddit, gathering more than 37,000 points (91% upvoted) and 2,200 comments within four hours.

Payments End

According to court documents,^[19] Fraser's alimony payments were to continue till January 31st, 2019 or "until the death of either party." In late January 2019, memes about Fraser's alimony payments ending began circulating online, with many referring to the event as "UNJUST".

On January 31st, Cr1TiKal tweeted^[20] "Brendan Fraser's alimony payments are finally over" (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 8,400 likes and 1,300 retweets.

Meanwhile, several posts about the alimony payments ending were submitted to various boards on 4chan, including /fit/,^[22] /biz/^[23] and /pol/.^[24] Also on January 31st, a post titled Brendan Is Free of Alimony As of Today" reached the frontpage of /r/SaveBrendan.^[21]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References