About

Awkward Family Photos is a single topic blog featuring cringe-worthy, bizarre and disturbing portraits, vacation pictures and other photographs of various families.

History

In May 2009, Awkward Family Photos^[1] was launched by creators Doug Chernack and Mike Bender and Bender discovered an awkward skiing vacation photo at his parents' house (shown below). Over the years, the site has been widely discussed online and in news media, including various talk shows and episodes of Nerdist.^[2]

Books

Several Awkward Family Photos books have been released, including Awkward Family Photos (2009), Awkward Family Pet Photos (2011), Awkward Family Holiday Photos (2013) and Everything Is Awkward (2016).

Board Game

A board game based on the blog features cards with photographs from the site along with questions players must answer correctly to accumulate a higher score.^[5][6]

Podcast

In March 2017, The Awkward Family Podcast was launched on iTunes,^[9] during which hosts SuChin Pak and Mike Bender interview people photographed in notable pictures highlighted on the blog.

Social Media Presence

On May 5th, 2009, the Awkward Family Photos Facebook^[7] page was created, which gathered upwards of 2.8 million likes over the next eight years. That month, the @awkwardfamilyphotos^[10] Twitter feed was launched. An official Instagram^[8] page for the site has accumulated more than 248,000 followers as of April 2017.

Related Memes

PTSD Clarinet Boy

PTSD Clarinet Boy is an advice animal image macro series based on a double exposure portrait of a redheaded boy dressed in a school band uniform holding a clarinet. A full-body image of the uniformed boy gazing out is superimposed on to the back of his head. The captions typically emulate the first-person accounts of a war veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, interpreting the dual images of the boy as him mulling over the past. On July 17th, 2009, the original photograph was highlighted on Awkward Family Photos.^[4]

Vengeance Dad

Vengeance Dad is an image macro series based on a digitally composited family photograph of a balding father on the right side and presumably the mother and two children on the left side. In similar style to PTSD Clarinet Kid, Vengeance Dad images are captioned with first-person style confessions as if he is recounting a terrible event that happened to his family to his own fault or intent. On June 18th, 2010, the original source photograph was featured on Awkward Family Photos.^[3]

Search Interest

External References