About

Urban Meyer's Pizza refers to an image of Ohio State college football head coach Urban Meyer photographed eating Papa John's pizza after losing a game to Michigan State University. The image has been used in memes celebrating whenever Ohio State loses big football games.

Origin

On December 8th, 2013, after a conference championship loss to arch rival Michigan State, Ohio State University head coach Urban Meyer was seen eating Papa John's pizza on a cart^[1] (shown below).

Spread

The photo became a recurring way to mock Ohio State fans after losing major football games. For example, one of the heights of popularity for the meme occurred after Ohio State lost a playoff game to Clemson in 2016. For example, a post by @JimMWeber using the image and Hello Darkness, My Old Friend gained over 320 retweets and 400 likes (shown below, left). Another by @SDS gained over 140 retweets and 300 likes (shown below, right).

Protest Troll

On August 1st, 2018, Meyer was placed on leave by the school for knowingly covering up spousal abuse allegations against assistant head coach Zach Smith, who was fired the week prior. On August 6th, Ohio State fans protested outside of the school's stadium the decision to place Meyer on leave. That day, Mississippi lawyer Karen Howell trolled the protestor by sending them a box of Papa John's pizza, playing on the earlier viral image of Meyer eating Papa John's after losing a football game. The moment was covered by BustedCoverage.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References