About

Vaseline Guy, also known as Silky Smooth Skin Guy, refers to an image of a bronze-skinned male model posing with a naked torso, his skin looking unnaturally glossy and smooth. Shared on Facebook in late November 2024, the photograph went viral on X / Twitter in mid-December 2024 as it saw use as a meme caption format.

Origin

The exact origin of the photograph and the person in it are currently unknown. On November 25th, 2024, Facebook^[1] and X^[2] user Praise John (@praisejohnn) posted an unflattering photograph of a semi-naked young Black man with glossy skin, likely due to a layer of oil or tanning products applied, posing for a photoshoot (shown below). The photograph, captioned, "But why?" received over 1,000 reactions and 40 shares on Facebook and 120 likes on X in one month. It is possible that the image is AI-generated.

Spread

On December 2nd, 2024, X^[3] user @letfreddybee reposted the image with the caption, "In addy to me 🥹." The repost received over 190 reposts and 320 likes in three weeks.

On December 8th, 2024, stan account user @temsszn posted a photograph of Nigerian singer Tems. On December 9th, X^[4] user @Chef_ranky made a post in which they implied that Tems would not look beautiful without makeup.

Later that day, X^[5] user @dah_skinny quoted @Chef_ranky's post with the photograph, writing, "This you btw?" insinuating that @Chef_ranky was the person in the photograph. The post (shown below) garnered over 6,600 reposts and 35,000 likes on X^[6] in two weeks.

In the following days, multiple users on X quoted the post with humorous comparisons. For example, on December 9th, 2024, X^[7] user @savonniee compared the man in the photo to what an imaginary friend looks like. The post (shown below) received over 15,000 reposts and 263,000 likes in two weeks.

In the following weeks, multiple caption memes based on the photograph were shared by users on X / Twitter.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References