About

David Beckham's "Be Honest. Thank You." is a multi-panel exploitable meme format based on an interview with British singer Victoria Beckham, which gets interrupted by her husband and footballer David Beckham peeking through the door and telling her to be honest, with Victoria then reluctantly obliging. The image macro format first gained popularity on Telegram in October 2023 and achieved further spread on X and Facebook in early December of that year.

Origin

On October 4th, the documentary series BECKHAM about the life and career of the British football player David Beckham premiered on Netflix.^[1] During an interview with Beckham's wife Victoria, "Posh Spice" of the Spice Girls band, Victoria tells the interviewer that both she and her husband came from working-class families, with David interrupting and telling her to be honest, with Victoria reluctantly admitting that her father had a Rolls-Royce (video shown below).

- We both come from families that worked really hard. Both of our parents work really hard. We're very working, working class.
- Be honest.
- I am being honest!
- Be honest.
- I am being honest!
- What car did your dad drive you to school in?
- So, my dad did-
- No. One answer. What car was it?
- It's not a simple answer because-
- What car did your dad drive you to school in?
- It depends…
- No, no, no, no, no.
- Okay, In the 80s, my dad had a Rolls-Royce.
- Thank you.

On October 6th, 2023, Reddit user Rajat_Chauhan posted the clip in the /r/funnyvideos^[2] subreddit, where it received over 64,200 likes in two months.

Spread

On October 8th, 2023, the Russian Telegram^[3] page @femalememes posted the earliest discovered meme based on the format, which received over 227,000 views in two months (shown below, left).

In October 2023, the format saw further spread in the Russian segment of Telegram. For example, on October 9th, the Telegram^[4] channel @ohmyhanshik posted a meme that accumulated over 700 views in two months (shown below, center). On October 17th and 18th, the Telegram^[5] channel @astrolvovik posted a collection of 12 astrology memes based on the format that accumulated over 800 views (one example shown below, right).

Left: "Me talking about how much of my salary I've saved / My man who pays for everything"
Center: "Korea has always attracted me with its rich culture and history- / Be honest! / Okay, I just love delicious food"
Right: "Aries: I'm an angel! I have the perfect personality. / Be honest! / Okay, I accidentally crushed a table in a fit of rage / Thank you."

On November 29th, 2023, X^[6] user @jonwu_ posted the earliest found English version of the meme that received over 460 reposts and 3,300 likes in 10 days (shown below, left). Later that day, @jonwu_ shared^[7] a meme template for the format. Later on November 29th, X^[8] user @TrungTPhan posted a meme based on the format that received over 600 reposts and 7,000 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

In the following week, the format saw notable spread on Facebook and X, with several examples going viral.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References