About

Shocked Gary Neville refers to a viral video and reaction meme of football analyst Gary Neville as he was in a conversation about the Liverpool team in January 2023. Due to the surprised expression shown by Neville during the argument, he subsequently went viral in mid-2023 as creators on TikTok used his quick motion and confused face to create memes. Gary Neville's shocked face notably follows the trend of other online personalities having shocked reactions of them going viral, such as Shocked Andrew Tate.

Origin

On January 2nd, 2023, the YouTube channel Sky Sports Premier League^[1] uploaded an excerpt from a sports talk show in which they talked about the Liverpool Football Club and its potential sale. During the conversation, Gary Neville physically recoils and reacts to what is said before responding in a high-pitched voice, earning the video over 1 million views in one year (shown below, 3:40 mark).

Spread

The shocked expression on Gary Neville's face quickly was picked up online and used across TikTok with people adding captions as a POV style meme. On March 3rd, 2023, TikToker footymcfc^[2] uploaded a TikTok of Gary Neville's shocked reaction, captioning it as if their friend had said something out of pocket, earning over 357,000 likes in one year (shown below).

Over the course of the year, the expression saw significant usage in different meme contexts. On December 6th, 2023, TikToker swampwitch1992^[3] uploaded a version of the meme in which it attempts to relate to trauma by using the John Lennon song "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" over a caption of someone finally being old enough to learn about the drama in the family (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References