What's The 'Kevin James' Meme? The Getty Image Of The 'King Of Queens' Actor Shrugging And Smirking Explained

The biggest meme on "X/Twitter" right now is a photo of The King of Queens actor Kevin James smirking on the set of the '90s television show.

In an odd turn of events, the Paul Blart: Mall Cop actor has become Twitter's main character, leading to a slew of funny memes that are captioning the image macro. What's the deal with it though? Why did this Getty Images stock photo of James smirking with his hands in his pockets become a viral meme?

Curious about where this meme started and why it's trending now? Let's explain.

Where Did The 'Kevin James' Meme Come From?

The original photo that the trend uses is from the website Getty Images. It was originally taken in 1998 on the set of The King of Queens by photographer Tony Esparzam for the CBS Photo Archive.

As far as we know, the first person to make a meme with the photo was an X/Twitter user named @ChampagneAnyone on Thursday night. They captioned the image, "me after 1 double rum and diet," which gained over 24,000 likes in a short timeframe.

How To Use The 'Kevin James' Meme Template

It's quite easy to make a Kevin James meme. All you have to do is download the Getty Image from above and add a funny caption to it. In reality, the "funny caption" is the hard part.

Overall, it seems that the vast majority of the memes use captions that portray cheeky confidence. James' smirk in the photo is being likened to being sly in a request or action.

Did Leah Remini React To The King Of Queens Memes?

As people got bored with the original smirking image, many meme creators transitioned to using any promo photo from the famous sitcom, starting the Kevin James Posting trend. This included photos with the show's co-star Leah Remini.

In turn, Remini reacted to the budding meme trend, writing in a post on X, "I wanted to let you all know I'm seeing all of The King of Queens memes and tweets and I absolutely love them. Thank you for 25 years of amazing memories!"

Unfortunately, she did not allude to Mr. James seeing the memes himself. The internet is still patiently awaiting his response.

For the full history of the Kevin James smirking Getty Image, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for even more information.