About

Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Perp Walk refers to a reaction video series that uses footage of actor Cuba Gooding Jr. being led by police after he had been charged with forcibly touching a woman. Online, people have used the video to make jokes about one's confidence while being removed from a situation.

Origin

On June 10th, 2019, the New York Post^[1] reported that Gooding, who was reportedly "highly intoxicated," had been accused of "groping" a woman at a Manhattan nightclub on June 9th.

On June 13th, 2019, Gooding surrendered to New York City police. Ahead of the arrest, he had stated that he had hard evidence proving his innocence. That day, NBC News published a video of his surrender. After being charged with forcibly touching the woman, he was escorted out of the police station in handcuffs.^[2] On YouTube, the video received more than 11,000 views in 24 hours (shown below).

Spread

Three days later, on June 16th, Twitter user @WillHayes_24 tweeted a clip of the video set to the Kanye West song "Black Skinhead." They captioned the post, "Me being escorted out of the Smoothie King Center for ripping off my shirt and chugging two beers like Stone Cold Steve Austin after Lonzo throws his first alley to Zion." The post received more than 9 million views, 980 likes and 380 retweets in less than one week (shown below).

Me being escorted out of the Smoothie King Center for ripping off my shirt and chugging two beers like Stone Cold Steve Austin after Lonzo throws his first alley to Zion🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/HQf6Mpif7x

— Will (@WillHayes_24) June 16, 2019

The following day, Twitter user @Bankrollblock tweeted the video with the caption "Me being escorted out of Megan Thee Stallions house after she catches me with a jar collecting samples of her twerk air." The post received more than 4,800 views, 270 likes and 60 retweets in less than one week (shown below).

On June 20th, The Daily Dot ^[3] published a report on the memes.

Me being escorted out of Megan Thee Stallions house after she catches me with a jar collecting samples of her twerk air pic.twitter.com/pUersS1mIi

— IDONTPAYTAXES (@Bankrollblock) June 17, 2019

On June 18th, Twitter user @Gibron_Lastname posted a version with the caption When they catch me at the movies after I paid for 1 ticket but snuck to see 3 movies and bought my own food." The post received more than 47,000 views, 2,000 likes and 400 retweets in less than one week (shown below).

When they catch me at the movies after I paid for 1 ticket but snuck to see 3 movies and bought my own food pic.twitter.com/kBHFimmewa

— Wassup Nicki Minaj (@Gibron_Lastname) June 18, 2019

Various Examples

My mum arresting me after being caught stealing meat from the pot pic.twitter.com/lbctj4sZLQ

— A Girl Has No Name (@_cherieldn) June 19, 2019

The internet police arresting me for not changing my profile picture to blue for sudan pic.twitter.com/nEXjj5BPxd

— Jack Palmieri (@jpalm70) June 18, 2019

me, a wedding DJ, being arrested for playing The Menzingers discographypic.twitter.com/1bLsGswh0K

— ᵀᴿᴵᴬᴺ (@howtobekind) June 18, 2019

Search Interest

External References