About

Clown Putting On Wig / Key the Clown refers to a set of images depicting K-pop singer Key putting a clown wig on his head, completing a Ronald McDonald costume. The images have been used in image macros starting in 2017 and is similar to the Putting on Clown Makeup meme.

Origin

On October 29th, 2015, K-pop artist collective SM Town held their annual Halloween party, known in the K-pop scene for its elaborate costumes that artists show up in. Key, a member of the K-pop group Shinee, arrived at the party dressed as Ronald McDonald, which he teased on his Instagram account multiple times that day (examples shown below).^[1][2]

That same day, Key posted a video of himself getting into his costume to Instagram,^[3] garnering over 185,000 views in five years (shown below). At the end of the video is a shot of Key taken from a birds-eye view, showing him staring down at his wig and then putting it on.

On January 15th, 2017, Twitter^[4] user @youronlyace uploaded a pair of screenshots from the end of the video, one where Key is looking down at the wig and one where it's on his head, under the caption, "when ur the funny friend so you gotta make jokes but then you get home and get to be sad again" garnering over 126,000 likes and 72,000 retweets in four years (shown below). The screenshots were later compiled into a single image for use in image macros by an unknown user.

Spread

The image slowly spread outside of the K-pop community over the following years through widely spread image macros and Twitter posts using the images. For example, on September 18th, 2017, Twitter^[5] user @phattilabelle tweeted "A visual of me getting ready to waste my gifts and talents at my 9-5" along with the images, garnering over 6,300 likes and 3,000 retweets in three years (shown below).

On May 30th, 2018, Twitter^[6] user @iPurrple tweeted an image macro using Key the Clown reading, "No body cared untill I put on the mask… Wake up hustlers let's get this bread" garnering over 1,000 likes and 300 retweets in two years (shown below, left). On August 5th, 2019, Redditor /u/NikeFreakShow uploaded an image macro featuring the image to /r/memes,^[7] garnering over 6,600 upvotes in roughly a year (shown below, right).

On February 8th, 2021, Redditor /u/lexyp29 uploaded an image macro to /r/dankmemes^[8] using the screenshots, along with a caption referencing Godzilla vs. Kong, receiving over 39,800 upvotes in a week (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References