About

Jimmy Butler Reading, also known as Jimmy Butler Looking At Paper or Guy Looking at Paper Meme, is a reaction image of American basketball player Jimmy Butler squinting his eyes to read a stat sheet during an NBA game. The image first appeared on Twitter / X in April 2018, growing substantially as a reaction and image macro to incomprehensible or grammatically incorrect sentences, as well as used to react to absurd content shared on the platform.

Origin

Although the author of the picture is unknown, the earliest online usage was posted on April 10th, 2018, when X^[1] user @gorzinhand uploaded Jimmy Butler's reading picture as a reaction to @OliverMaroney's post about the Western Conference Playoff Scenarios from the NBA. The tweet (seen below) amassed roughly 40 likes in seven years.

Spread

The Jimmy Butler reading picture grew as a popular reaction meme on X in the following years, often used to express confusion or shock while reading other people's content.

For example, on May 1st, 2018, X^[2] user @shahemofficial posted the Butler Looking at Paper meme as a reaction to Kanye West's "Slavery Was a Choice" controversy. The tweet amassed more than 10,000 likes and 4,300 retweets in seven years.

On February 5th, 2025, Instagram^[3] user @thegistusa posted the Jimmy Bulter trying to read meme as an image macro, writing, "Trying to figure out all the moving parts of the Jimmy Bulter trade like…" The post (seen below) received more than 700 likes in a month.

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Various Examples

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