Joey's Delayed Reaction
Confirmed 64,718
Part of a series on Friends. [View Related Entries]
Joey's Delayed Reaction
Part of a series on Friends. [View Related Entries]
About
Joey's Delayed Reaction, also known as Scared Joey and Surprised Joey, refers to a memorable scene from the Friends television series in which character Joey Tribbiani widens his eyes as slowly realizes a key plot detail about his friends Ross Geller and Rachel Green. Starting in the early 2010s, the scene has been used as a GIF reaction, also gaining notable popularity as a part of four-panel reaction memes in late 2019.
Origin
On October 4th, 2001, episode two "The One With the Red Sweater" of season 8 of the Friends television series premiered.[1] In the episode, characters Monica Geller, Phoebe Buffay and Joey Tribbiani (portrayed by Matt LeBlanc) learn a major plot detail about their friends Ross Geller and Rachel Green. After taking a moment, Joey realizes the revelation and reacts by widening his eyes (scene shown below). On November 27th, 2007, YouTube[2] user Christiano Ronaltno uploaded the scene to YouTube, where it gained over 268,000 views in thirteen years.
- Hey, my sweater! I've been looking for this for like a month!
- Oh my god!
- Oh my god!
At an unknown date after April 2nd, 2002, fan website Friendsgeneration[3] posted the earliest known still image of Joey with widened eyes, later reposted on Skyrock[4] and other websites.
On May 15th, 2011, the earliest known reaction GIF based on the scene was posted to Reaction GIFs[5] (shown below).
Spread
Starting in the early 2010s, the GIF gained significant popularity as a reaction on Tumblr, Twitter and other websites, also appearing in listicles on BuzzFeed[10][11][12] and other websites. For example, on June 21st, 2012, Blogspot[5] account thebestgifsforme included the image in a collection of Friends GIFs. On September 16th, 2013, Redditor[6] PaynoH posted a shorter version of the GIF to /r/reactiongifs subreddit, where it gained over 3,100 upvotes in six months. On the same day, the GIF was reposted on GIPHY[7] and 9GAG.[8]
On November 20th, 2014, Know Your Meme[9] user João Pedro Brigatti archived a watermarked version of the GIF on the website.
On August 10th, 2019, Redditor[13] George2110 posted the earliest known four-panel reaction meme utilizing still images from the scene (shown below). The post received over 27,200 upvotes in /r/dankmemes in six months. A September 4th, 2019, repost by Facebook[14] group Men's Humor received over 20,000 reactions and 7,300 shares in five months.
The four-panel format saw moderate use on Reddit in the following months. For example, an October 25th, 2019, post by Redditor[15] NoellePrit in /r/dndmemes received over 25,400 upvotes in three months (shown below, left). A December 6th, 2019, post in 9GAG Facebook[16] group received over 80,000 reactions and 9,400 shares (shown below, right).
Starting in late December 2019 the format saw a significant surge in popularity in the major meme subreddits.
Various Examples
Template
Search Interest
External References
[2] YouTube – Friends – TOW The one with the red sweater
[3] Friendsgeneration.com – Picture n°25 of the episode 802
[4] Skyrock – Celui qui avait un sweat rouge
[5] Reaction GIFs – wait WHAT!?
[6] Reddit – When I'm watching something for the first time and I realize it's the source of a popular gif
[7] GIPHY – Matt Leblanc Friends GIF
[8] 9GAG – When I'm watching something for the first time and I realize it's the source of a popular gif
[9] Know Your Meme – Image #867,713
[10] BuzzFeed – 19 Awkward Sex Horror Stories That'll Make You Turn Celibate
[11] BuzzFeed – 22 Facts That Are Small But Still A Total Mindfuck
[12] BuzzFeed – 16 Things You'll Definitely Miss About America When Moving Abroad
[13] Reddit – I can't sleep
[14] Facebook – Men's Humor
[15] Reddit – Has this been done? This was me last night for my campaign…
Related Entries 11 total
Recent Videos
There are no videos currently available.
Recent Images 43 total
Share Pin
Related Entries 11 total
Recent Images 43 total
Recent Videos 0 total
There are no recent videos.
