Overview

Bill Clinton Kid refers to the nickname given to YouTuber Matan Even after he crashed the stage during the 2022 Game Awards when he walked up behind the game developers as Elden Ring was receiving the Game of the Year award, taking the microphone after they were done and nominating the award to go to "Reformed Orthodox Rabbi Bill Clinton." The incident resulted in much confusion online as people tried to learn what his statement meant and who Even was, as well as many memes spawning afterward. Even was also reportedly arrested following the event.

Background

On December 8th, 2022, during the end of the Game Awards show, the video game Elden Ring won Game of the Year and the director Hidetaka Miyazaki and several of the developers went on stage to receive the award. Behind them, YouTuber Matan Even inconspicuously walked with the group, who then proceeded to hang back while the victory speech was being given. At the conclusion of the speech, the music began to roll but was then suddenly cut off when Even took the microphone and nominated the award to "my Reformed Orthodox Rabbi Bill Clinton" before walking offstage as the music resumed. This incident quickly became a trending topic online and the clip was reuploaded by the YouTuber Centerstrain01^[1] that night, which gathered over 10,000 views in one hour (shown below).

Developments

False Arrest Report

Late on December 8th, 2022, the Game Awards show host Geoff Keighley then mistakenly stated that Matan Even was arrested for his stunt, posting the statement to his Twitter^[4] around 11 p.m. EST, which received over 280,000 likes, 33,300 retweets and 17,700 quote tweets in 12 hours (seen below).

After Keighley's misreport of the arrest, more memes began to sprout up, with people demanding to "Free My Boy" and claiming that the joke was just an innocent one that didn't deserve him getting arrested. As a response to Keighley, Twitter user @Alpha_Hatsuseno^[3] uploaded a What Was He Cooking? meme about Matan's stunt that night, receiving over 17,700 likes in 12 hours (shown below).

Online Reactions

Immediately after the Game Awards concluded late on December 8th, 2022, the event began to get memed on Twitter and receive significant media coverage, as well as viral discussion. For example, that night, the clip was posted to Reddit's /r/LivestreamFail^[5] by Redditor -eDgAR- under the title "Kid gives a weird shoutout at the Game Awards," garnering over 15,300 upvotes and 1,500 comments in 13 hours.

Due to the game Elden Ring being the one who received the award during the interrupted speech, many of the memes were references to the game, such as showing Matan Even as an invading enemy behind the game developers as player characters. One such example was posted on the subreddit /r/Dankmemes^[2] by Redditor CTR_ on December 8th, receiving over 300 upvotes in 13 hours (shown below).

Also on December 8th, 2022, Twitter user _moominvalleys posted a reaction video meme about the devs noticing Even, which accumulated over 8,600 likes and 1,500 retweets in 13 hours (seen below).

Miyazaki and the Elden Ring devs finally noticing the random kid behind them on stage pic.twitter.com/MyvcN1Iiis

— carto 💖 (@_moominvalleys) December 9, 2022

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References