About

#Johning is a Twitter based photo fad that involves posing for a picture while lying on the floor with one's legs over the footboard of a bed and a laptop on the stomach. It is a parody of a photograph of young adult author and vlogger John Green published by Hollywood Reporter in May 2014.

Origin

On May 1st, 2014, The Hollywood Report^[1] published an article titled "'Fault in Our Stars' Author John Green: Why He's 'Freaking Out' About Hollywood Success," which featured a photo of Green lying on the floor with his legs resting on a bed and his laptop on his stomach.

The same day popular YouTube vlogger Charlie McDonnell^[2] tweeted a picture featuring him striking the same pose with the hashtag #Johning.

In less than 24 hours the tweet gained over 1,000 retweets and over 6,000 favorites.

Spread

On May 1st, 2014, Hank Green, John Green's brother and co-host of YouTube channel Vlogbrothers, posted a collection of tweeted #Johning photos, as well as one of his own, on his Tumblr blog^[4] with the caption:

"Something just happened on Twitter…be careful while #johnning.

In less than 24 hours the post gained over 42,000 notes.

The same day John Green reblogged^[5] the post with the caption:

"When they were taking that picture, I was like, “If you use this, people are going to make fun of me.” But I had no idea it would be so wonderful."

On May 2nd, the photo fad was covered by The Daily Dot^[6] with a piece titled "This awkward John Green photo is now a full-fledged Twitter meme." In less than 24 hours the hashtag #Johning^[3] was tweeted out over 2,700 times.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References