Two Guys Kissing

About

Two Guys Kissing, is a viral image of two Black men kissing each other on the lips. It is unknown where the image originally came from, but it was uploaded online as early as 2012 and became the subject of image macro memes and a reaction image in the following years. The format also became more widely used in 2017 through the Kiss Your Homies Goodnight format. In 2022, the image again saw a significant resurgence on TikTok in the Two Guys Kissing Cutscene Cooking Videos where the photo of the two men kissing was spliced randomly in various videos without context.

Origin

It is unclear where the original image is sourced from. The earliest known available page using the image online is an article by 10knews^[1] published on December 1st, 2012, titled, "WELCOME TO NIGERIA…HOMOSEXUALS!!!" The article is against homosexuality in Nigeria and uses the image as an example of it. The earliest known upload of the image as a meme was posted to the sep7agon^[2] forum on April 24th, 2014, in an image macro captioned with a racial slur and a homophobic slur.

Spread

The meme continued to spread over the following years on social media. On July 22nd, 2015, a Redditor posted a meme using the image to /r/BlackPeopleTwitter,^[3] garnering over 100 upvotes in seven years (shown below).

In 2017, the image became associated with the "Kiss Your Homies Goodnight" meme, which surrounds jokes about it being good to kiss your friends goodnight and that it's not a homosexual act. On June 21st, 2022, YouTuber Senzawa Archive uploaded a song about the meme using the image, garnering over 19,000 views in three months (shown below).

Marriage Rumors

On October 27th, 2017, a Redditor posted a photograph of their friends' engagement to /r/gaybros,^[4] picturing two Black men, garnering over 19,800 upvotes in five years. On May 15th, 2020, a Redditor then made a post to /r/lgbt^[5] claiming the two men from the photo are the men from the meme, garnering over 5,600 upvotes in two years (shown below). It was also shared on /r/wholesomememes^[6] the next day, garnering over 7,800 upvotes in two years. It is unconfirmed if these are the same men.

Two Guys Kissing Cutscene Cooking Videos

In late 2022, the Two Dudes Kissing meme saw a notable revival in the Guys Kissing Cutscene Cooking Videos trend, primarily on TikTok. These memes typically use the image as a bait-and-switch, showing the steps to various recipes or instructional videos that then insert a cut of two men or two animals kissing with no further explanation, which leads to the question Is That An Essential Step? being asked commonly in comments.

For example, on November 3rd, 2022, Instagram^[7] user lisa7mudgarcia posted one such example depicting a video where someone shows the patterns of their mouse movements in various games, only to cut to the Two Gay Niggas Kissing meme as the drawing upon showing Fortnite (seen below). The meme received over 224,000 likes in one week.

Related Memes

Kiss Your Homies Goodnight

Kiss Your Homies Goodnight is a catchphrase in which men playfully suggest that it's good to kiss their friends goodnight and that it's not a homosexual act. The phrase has been used in many reaction image memes in which it's suggested to be a very positive and necessary act and is often associated with the image of two gay Black men kissing.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References