Buzz Lightyear In A Suit
Part of a series on Beetlejuicing. [View Related Entries]
About
Buzz Lightyear In A Suit refers to an image, often used as a profile picture, that shows Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story wearing a purple suit and dress shirt, looking dapper and handsome for the camera. The character became the subject of memes on iFunny in late 2020 after a tweet surfaced, ironically stating that "racists and homophobics" had been using the profile pic "to get in touch with each other." A video surfaced of many Buzz Lightyears in the comment section beetlejuicing by being ironically worried about the phenomenon and subsequently making a cliché to reference in memes going forward.
Origin
On May 16th, 2020, Behance[1] artist halawany posted an image to Instagram, [2] showing Buzz Lightyear in a purple suit. The image was a part of their 2020 project, "RealToons." [1] When posted to Instagram, the image received roughly 16,900 likes over the course of two years (shown below).
Spread
On June 5th, 2020, the image was used in a meme uploaded to Reddit's /r/MemeEconomy [3] by Redditor wubbalubba7. The post received 25 upvotes in two years (shown below, left). On September 19th, 2020, the image was used by Twitter[4] user ryderlesiw, who captioned it, "WARNING ⚠️ Racists and Homophobics have been using this picture as their profile pics to get in touch with each other, be safe❤️," earning over 270 likes in a year and a half (shown below, right).
On September 19th, 2020, Twitter user ryderlesiw posted his tweet to TikTok, [5] putting himself in front of the tweet using a green-screen effect. Over the course of a year and a half, the video received roughly 1.7 million plays and 316,800 likes (shown below).
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6874146230163737858
Inspired by the engagement that the aforementioned TikTok received, it was reposted to iFunny in late September 2020 by iFunnier Scucc.[6] The repost received roughly 1,000 smiles and over 190 comments in one week. Within the comment section, multiple iFunnyers made their profile pictures Buzz Lightyears in purple suits, beetlejuicing by showing ironic concern and saying phrases like, "Thanks for the heads-up," among others. This was made into another video, posted by iFunnyer[7] DaddyNeedsABagel on September 26th, 2020, where over the course of a year and a half, it received roughly 4,600 smiles (shown below).
The aforementioned video was reposted to other platforms like Instagram[8] going into 2021. The discourse surrounding the picture surged once more in early 2022 on Reddit and TikTok predominantly. For instance, on May 4th, 2022, Redditor Rxyor25 posted the image to /r/shitposting,[9] captioning it, "please stay safe out there guys," and earned roughly 8,800 upvotes over the course of eight days.
Within the comments, multiple Buzz Lightyear profiles started to mimic what was done on iFunny in 2020. This inspired Redditor Aight_brother to post a video to /r/cursed_videomemes[10] showing the post and the comments. Over the course of eight days, the video received roughly 2,700 upvotes (shown below).
Various Examples
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7094120229365681454
Search Interest
External References
[1] Behance – the original artwork
[2] Instagram – @halawany.m
[3] Reddit – /r/MemeEconomy
[4] Twitter – @ryderlesiw
[5] TikTok – @ryderlesiw
[6] iFunny – evidence of Scucc's post
[7] iFunny – @DaddyNeedsABagel
[8] Instagram – (viral repost)
[9] Reddit – /r/shitposting
[10] Reddit – /r/cursed_videomemes
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