About

Carlton Banks is a character from the famous television show "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" played by actor Alfonso Ribeiro, that has become internet famous due to a picture of him smirking at the camera, that has been wildly photoshopped.

Origin

Carlton's first appearance in the show was on pilot, released in September 10, 1990, he comes up as sophisticated, and although highly intelligent, also arrogant, which challenged Will Smith's views.

One of the first images related to the photoshop meme dates back to the early 90's during the first seasons of the show.

Spread

The first instances of popularity date back to 2008 and 2009, in which carlton´s image was used as a way of spam in multiple threads

Exploitable

Due to the unsettling nature of Carlton's smirk, on 4chan, said image evolved into an exploitable, with Carlton's face being photoshopped into multiple objects and faces.

Thug Life

Thug Life is a phrase popularized by late rapper 2pac to describe the life of someone living in the ghetto.

The phrase is constantly associated with Carlton's as a contradiction of his rich, innocent and naive style of life and has become one of the biggest examples of the meme I Didn't Choose The Thug Life, The Thug Life Chose Me

Carlton Banks Dance

Carlton Banks' Dance, also known as "The Carlton", is a comedic dance routine performed by Alfonso Ribeiro on the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The dance features Ribeiro as the character Carton Banks gyrating his arms and hips while moving his knees back and forth and is meant to satirize poor dancing for humorous effect.

Various Examples

Search Interest