About

Nikola Jokic and Gru Comparisons refers to jokes that Denver Nuggets star basketball player Nikola Jokic resembles Gru, the main character of the Despicable Me franchise, particularly when he wears a suit. The comparison grew stronger after Jokic embraced the meme and made commercials referencing the Gru likeness in April 2024.

Origin

In December 2022, Nikola Jokic drew attention after entering an arena in a suit before a game. On December 21st, the clip was posted to the subreddit /r/nba^[1] where commenter theopdude stated that Jokic gave off "Gru vibes."^[2] The same day, YouTuber The Fumble highlighted "Gru" jokes Jokic received on Instagram for the clip, gaining over 4,400 views in 16 months (shown below).

Spread

Comparisons died down for the remainder of the season and throughout the 2023-2024 NBA season, but on April 20th, 2024, Nikola Jokic starred in an advertisement for Despicable Me 4 in which he complained to a therapist about getting compared to Gru. The trailer gained over 210,000 views on YouTube in three days (shown below).

The same day, Jokic attended Game 1 of his team's playoff series against the Lakers dressed as Gru (tweet by @sportingnews^[3] shown below).

The commercial led to further memes comparing Jokic and Gru. On April 20th, Twitter user @AIKnowsBall^[4] posted an AI-generated image of Gru in Jokic's uniform, gaining over 1,700 retweets and 34,000 likes in three days (shown below, left). On April 21st, Twitter user @luckymong1^[5] posted art of Gru using a freezing device on the Lakers, gaining over 10 retweets and 140 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References