The majority of the internet can be very gullible, and sometimes all it takes to convince them of a lie is to put two pictures next to each other.

Enter one Johnathan Plumstead, a Florida man who yesterday tweeted a picture of himself next to the I Like Turtles kid and stated, "Lot's can change over 20 years, but I still like turtles!!!"

Though Plumstead technically doesn't say he is the famous "I Like Turtles" child who became a meme in the late 2000s when his viral video began circulating on YouTube, it seemed clear to many that that was what he was implying, and many celebrated the look of an apparent old meme all grown up.

WHAT (THIS WAS 20 YEARS AGO?) https://t.co/Q2RtFkGMIf

— KandiTV (@KandiTVOfficial) July 1, 2022

Wanna feel old?https://t.co/88ijwIwrqa

— Ptsdeeznutz (@Ptsdeeznutz1) July 1, 2022

This is the only good thing I’ve seen on this godforsaken app in weeks https://t.co/PpowRqqPMM

— Owen Knight (@TulaneOwen) July 1, 2022

To be clear, Plumstead is not the "I Like Turtles" kid. This is easily verifiable with a quick glance at the Know Your Meme entry for the meme and any article about the kid, all of which identify the boy as Jonathan Ware, who was last noted as graduating high school in Ohio around the mid-2010s.

As Plumstead racked up the retweets, skeptics were able to quickly disprove the implication that he was the "I Like Turtles" kid, accusing him of lying for clout.

strange that people are committing stolen valor over memes now https://t.co/aNA5dGuCHY

— summer hiatus (@CurlySquare) July 1, 2022

this dude is fucking lying https://t.co/wwPjLUU0jW

— ayatrollah (@ayatr0llah) June 30, 2022

How pathetic do you need to be to pretend to be a meme to gain internet clout.

The video isn't even 20 years old https://t.co/gOgGev1bTU

— I'm Bi (@CritSuccessNerd) July 1, 2022

Plumstead either realized his ruse had failed or that he had greatly misled a lot of people, and this morning admitted that he was not the "I Like Turtles" kid, saying that he merely liked turtles 20 years ago and still likes them now.

Update – I am not Jonathan the "I-Like-Turtles-Kid."

I liked turtles 20 years ago, and I still like turtles, but that was not me in the 2007 video.

I hope the tweet made you smile.

Best,
Leeroy Jenkins https://t.co/NJNf3phCrO

— John Plumstead (🪓🪓🪓) (@johnplumstead) July 1, 2022

Just a reminder that if you come across anything on the internet that seems too good to be true, a simple Google search (or a glance at Know Your Meme) will usually be enough to verify whether or not it's true.