Renard Matthews's Wake
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About
Renard Matthews's Wake is viral news story about a slain teenager, Renard Matthews, whose body was placed in a recliner and posed as if he was playing video games. Online, people have photoshoppped images of the body into various other images for humorous effect.
Origin
On July 8th, 2018, the New Orleans news outlet WGNO[1] reported that the parents of Renard Matthews, an 18-year-old New Orleans man fatally shot in June 2018, had him dressed in his Boston Celtics jersey and placed in a recliner chair as if he were playing video games for his wake. Additionally, the body was placed in front of a television playing he video NBA2K and next to a bag of Doritos and a bottle of root beer.
That day, the outlet tweeted [2] an image of Matthews with the caption "NOLA family chooses unique but loving way to say goodbye to son." The post (shown below) received more than 3,300 retweets and 4,700 likes in three days.
Spread
Over the next three days, several media outlets reported on the story, including Fox,[2] Vice [6] and more.
On July 9th, an anonymous 4chan user posted the image in the /pol/[7] message board under the thread "This Is America".
The following day, an anonmyous 4chan user on the [1] /pol/ board posted a cutout PNG image of the person and asked people to meme it (shown below, left).
The post inspired numerous photoshops, which placed the body in different settings (examples below, center and right).
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] 4chan /pol/ – Meme this shit – Politically Incorrect | Archived: http://archive.is/jaLZl
[2] Fox – Family has son’s body displayed in front of TV at wake | fox5sandiego.com
[3] 13 WTHR Indianapolis – NOLA family poses son's body in front of TV for his wake – Trending & Viral News – 13 WTHR Indianapolis
[4] WGNO – NOLA family chooses unique but loving way to say goodbye to son
[5] Twitter – @WGNOtv's Tweet
[6] Vice – Family Poses Slain Teen's Body with PlayStation and Doritos at His Funeral
[7] 4chan – This Is America
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Top Comments
Lobsel Vith
Jul 11, 2018 at 10:03PM EDT
Cordelius
Jul 11, 2018 at 10:23PM EDT