Popeyes Kid / Dieunerst Collin

About

Popeyes Kid or Terio at Popeyes is a viral Vine video of a young boy named Dieunerst Collin at a Popeyes fast-food restaurant standing next to a pair of garbage bins and giving side-eyed glances at the camera. An older man jokes that the boy resembles the Vine celebrity Terio as the boy looks uncomfortably at the camera. In memes, people typically use reaction images and GIFs of the scene to express judgment of another's comments or actions. In January 2023 following a social media push by Collin, Popeyes gave him an NIL deal for his college football contract, which was widely celebrated and reported on.

Origin

On August 21st, 2013, Vine^[1] user TheRealSnoopy published the video "Terio At Popeyes." The post received more than 19 million loops, 670,000 likes and 591,000 revines in less than seven years (mirror below). In the video, a man says, "Yo, this nigga Terio at Popeyes." He responds to these comments with a series of side-eyed glances.

Spread

The following day, Twitter ^[5] user @Drummerboy_015 posted a two-frame image macro of the scene with the caption "When I see my teacher at a store" (shown below, left)

On June 5th, 2014, Redditor ^[2] published a GIF of the scene in the /r/reactiongifs subreddit. (shown below, left). They captioned the reaction, "MRW my wife sees my comments on gonewild."

Screenshots of the video have also been used in a series of image macros. For example, on March 18th, 2016, Instagram ^[3] user @dallaswhatsgood shared a meme that has the caption "When the Japanese heard the U.S. was testing nuclear bombs after attacking Pearl Harbor" (shown below, right).

On February 20th, 2019, Redditor^[4] mudda1 asked the /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit about the meme. They wrote, "I never paid attention to Vine when it was around, which was probably a good thing. Lately though, I've been watching some compilations, and this is one that I just didn't understand. I know through cursory searching that Terio was well known, but can someone explain to me why this one in particular was funny?"

Redditor SplitParadox responds, "Basically, the guy in the Pop Eyes vine was making a joke that the kid he found in the restaurant looked like Terio. The funny part is that the kid just stares at him awkwardly."

Football State Championship Win

On December 5th, 2021, it was reported that the East Orange High School football team, which includes Collin, won a triple-overtime victory against the Mustangs, taking home a state championship.^[7] Twitter^[8] user @Jerseystar973 posted a side-by-side image of the original meme next to Collin holding the championship cup, gaining over 135,000 likes and 18,000 retweets in two days (shown below). Collin also posted about the win on his Twitter^[9] account.

The win was reported across the web by sites including Total Pro Sports,^[10] HITC^[11] and Sports Illustrated,^[12] which interviewed Collin about the win. In the interview, Collin said he "felt sad about [the Terio meme]" when it first happened and took it as bullying when people called him Terio in public. He said he "cried a little bit" about it at first but grew to like the meme over the years.

College Sponsorship Campaign / Popeyes NIL Deal

On January 8th, 2023, Dieunerst Collin made a post on his Instagram and Twitter calling for people to help him get in touch with the Popeyes company, as he is now a college football player and they are allowed to enter into sponsorship deals with brands of their own accord (shown below). This attempt at "getting a bag" was praised by many on social media, who voiced their support for Collin to receive an NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) deal and argued his meme brought business to the fast-food chain.

I NEED EVEYONE TO GO TO MY INSTAGRAM dieunerst REPOST MY RECENT POST AND TAG Popeyes I JUST WANNA TALK🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/Fq00ylsJqs

— Dieunerst Collin (@CollinDieunerst) January 8, 2023

On January 11th, Popeyes then completed the NIL deal with Collin as it was widely reported on in the media. The terms of the deal are not disclosed, but the partnership was largely celebrated on social media.

On January 13th, 2023, Popeyes uploaded a video to its Instagram account alongside Collin with the caption "from memes to dreams. @dieunerst reads a letter to his younger self." The "memes to dreams" video was subsequently reported on by media outlets and reposted online, accumulating over 11,800 likes in two weeks (shown below).

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Various Examples

Search Interest

External References