About

I'm Gonna Pretend I Didn't See That refers to a series of reaction image macros of featuring a photograph of musician and recording artist Ray Charles, who was visually impaired, and the phrase. The image is used as the punchline to jokes about one's willful ignorance.

Origin

The image of Ray Charles at a piano has been used on album covers, books and other materials featuring or about Charles's work since 1960, when the photograph was reportedly taken.^[1]

On November 24th, 2018, Redditor LeftyOnenut submitted posted the image with the phrase "I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that." Above the image is the caption "When Saudi Arabia executes a journalist but gas drops below $2 a gallon…" Within five days, the post received more than 31,000 points (95% upvoted) and 335 comments on /r/memes^[5] (shown below).

Spread

On November 25th, 2018, Redditor EverythingTittysBoil reposted the image to /r/dankmemes.^[2]

The following day, more Redditors began posting the image with a variety of captions. Redditor^[3] HamimMostafa posted the image with a joke about the Bible ignoring the existence of dinosaurs. The post received more than 16,000 points (91% upvoted) and 300 comments (shown below, left).

On November 27th, Redditor^[4] Archie_B16 posted a version about the flat earth conspiracy theory in the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit. Within three days, the post received more than 20,000 points (94% upvoted) and 635 comments (shown below, center).

Over the next three days, Redditors continued to post images in /r/me_irl and /r/dankmemes (example below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References