David Martinez Stare

Editor's Note: This entry contains major spoilers for Cyberpunk Edgerunners; read at your own caution.

About

The David Martinez Stare, also known as David Martinez Face, is a screencap from season one of the 2022 Netflix anime series Cyberpunk Edgerunners in which the protagonist David Martinez is sitting in a car with Lucy looking lifelessly at the camera and crying due to the deaths of Maine and Dorio. In late 2022, the image and GIF were inserted into many exploitable templates, accompanied by various captions that either emphasized his sorrow or satirized it.

Origin

At the 23:59-minute mark in the last scene of season one, episode six of Cyberpunk Edgerunners titled "Girl on Fire," the protagonist David Martinez is sitting in a car with Lucy looking lifelessly at the camera because of the deaths of Maine and Dorio that happened in the scene prior (shown below).

On September 13th, 2022, Redditor ThucydidesJones posted a discussion post to /r/cyberpunkgame^[1] about the sixth episode, gaining over 80 upvotes in three weeks. On September 14th, Twitter^[2] user akzzzino attached the screencap of Martinez staring in a tweet along with other Edgerunners screencaps, earning over 1,700 likes in three weeks. On September 16th, news outlet EpicStream^[3] used the Martinez staring screencap from episode six in an article. On September 21st, Redditor FiShJjeSUs posted the screencap of Martinez staring from the episode to /r/Cyberpunk,^[4] captioning it "choom" and gaining roughly 1,200 upvotes in 12 days.

Spread

Later on September 21st, 2022, Redditor FiShJjeSUs posted a meme using the screencap to /r/Cyberpunk,^[5] inserting Martinez into the "My Daily Schedule" template and earning over 40 upvotes in 12 days (shown below, left). Four days later, on September 25th, iFunnyer^[6] EliteOG reposted the meme, gaining roughly 8,600 smiles in eight days.

More usage started to surface on iFunny thereafter. For instance, on September 29th, 2022, iFunnyer^[7] jemboch inserted a "Live David Reaction," in reference to the Live Tucker Reaction template, into the bottom-right corner of a Rebecca screencap, gaining roughly 7,100 smiles in four days (shown below, right).

More memes using the screencap surfaced on Reddit's /r/cyberpunkgame^[8] and iFunny^[9] going into October 2022. It also trended within video memes on Instagram. For instance, on September 28th, 2022, Instagram^[10] user largetrap referenced the My Reaction To That Information meme in a post that received roughly 52,400 likes in five days (shown below, left). On September 29th, 2022, Instagram^[11] user masonch1llout referenced the X Staring at the Wings on the Table meme in a post that earned roughly 2,300 likes in four days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References