interviews
Vine Star And Meme Icon Gavin Thomas Reflects On His Viral Internet Fame Eight Years Later
ew people ever become a notable meme format, but even fewer have multiple images or videos of themselves wind up as several viral memes. Apart from celebrities or prominent individuals, 10-year-old Gavin Thomas is a rare exception in the online world whose had numerous meme formats spawn from his extremely relatable likeness over the last several years.
To retrace his legacy in memedom, we reached out to Gavin and his mother Kate for a little interview to catch up on the last eight years since the first image of Gavin went viral online.
Gavin’s journey to meme status began way back in early 2013 when Vine star Nick Mastadon, his uncle, uploaded the first video featuring Gavin to his account when he was just two years old.
“In 2013 my brother, Nick Mastodon (Gavin’s uncle) started on Vine,” Kate told us. “Nick was very popular on Vine with his Disney matchups. He added Gavin to a few videos of the two of them just hanging out. I remember the first Vine with Gavin was just Gavin handing out stickers to all of his aunts and uncles.”
From there, Gavin remained a popular cameo in Mastodon's Vines until mid-2014 when he began going viral for the first time after appearing in an article from The Daily Dot.
“The first Vine to go viral was one where Gavin had a crested gecko on his head,” Kate said. “He went through a series of facial expressions in that six-second video. The funny thing was that Nick said that the lizard Vine sat in his drafts folder for a week before he posted it. I would have never imagined that all of this would have happened. We were just taking cute videos and photos of Gavin.”
It wouldn’t be until 2016 when Gavin truly became a well-known meme star around the web thanks to a little help from Twitter user @wedecide it, who tweeted a series of Vine videos starring Gavin with each one accumulating tens of thousands of likes and retweets. The Twitter account @GavMemes, created around the same timeframe, also helped to propel Gavin’s fame online after amassing over 41,000 followers in a mere four weeks.
According to Kate, Gavin’s reaction to being recorded for these iconic Vines was nothing but enthusiastic, and even though he was only a few years old, his family could tell that recording these short clips and making people laugh was something he thoroughly enjoyed.
“He was just having fun hanging out with his uncle Nick,” Kate said. “After a little while, he would go find Nick and ask him if they could ‘take a vine.’ He would always laugh at the photos and videos we were posting. Gavin has always loved making people laugh.”
The summer of 2016 continued to be fundamental to Gavin’s internet stardom as he made an appearance in an issue of Entertainment Weekly and was featured in many other online publications.
“He was so young when it first started that he’s grown up with all of it,” Kate said. “When he was little, Entertainment Weekly added a photo that Nick took in their magazine. My whole family had downloaded Pokemon Go for the first time and Gavin was out helping us. Nick put a Pokemon on Gavin’s head and captured his reaction. It was fun to see his photo in a magazine. A little while after that Nick and Gavin were interviewed by local news about Vine.”
Perhaps one of the most memorable moments was when Katy Perry retweeted a post that had a picture of Gavin with the caption "my favorite celebrity" that July. About Perry’s tweet, Kate told us that the family loved it, also noting that other high-profile individuals like Simone Biles and Laurie Hernandez tweeted about Gavin while they were at the Olympics.
While sometimes seeing images of your child going viral online might be concerning, Gavin’s family said they enjoyed the experience over the years, frequently sharing memes featuring Gavin with friends and neighbors.
“It is so funny scrolling through social media and seeing Gavin’s photos or videos popping up in meme or Vine articles,” Kate said. “I still get tagged or sent articles a few days a week. My sister just sent me one last night. It was fun to see how creative people can be with the memes.”
During his rise to memedom, Gavin’s family shared a humorous moment about his father, Adam, having a picture of Gavin on his desk at work, unbeknownst to his coworkers who assumed he merely liked the meme.
“A few years ago Adam’s coworker sat down at his desk and said, ‘OMG the meme kid. I love that you printed a photo of him since he’s all of our son.’ Adam was so confused and said, ‘No, that’s my actual son.’ I don’t think he had realized how my people the memes and Vines reached until that day.”
Despite his immense online fandom, Gavin has led a pretty normal life to any other kid growing up. The only difference, according to his family, is that he has a larger “internet family” who shares in the experience of watching Gavin grow up, leading many to the former conclusion that Gavin is “the internet’s son” to some degree.
While Gavin’s initial internet fame mostly came from the U.S., his beloved images eventually spread to many other countries in the years since his first online appearance. Since then, Gavin has accumulated a worldwide fanbase as far-reaching as South America and Asia, and he’s frequented some of these countries alongside his family over the years.
About his international fame, his family told us that it’s amazing to see how beloved he is in so many diverse places, and Gavin actively enjoys pinpointing on maps where he receives fan mail or messages.
In particular, Gavin is quite popular in China where he’s known as the “Fake Smile Boy.” In recent years, he and his family have been invited to China where he’s attended events and met with fans, as well as being on television there. Through this experience, Gavin has even learned some Mandarin despite being quite young still.
“We loved visiting China and hope to go back one day soon,” Kate told us. “I think it’s so cool that memes can be used to communicate your feelings in any language. We’ve met people who use Gavin’s memes on WeChat, WhatsApp and text when talking to their family and friends.”
Last month, Gavin also entered the budding world of crypto-collectibles after minting his first NFT on the crypto art platform Foundation. Though the family said they were hesitant at first, they ultimately decided that this would be a fun way to contribute to Gavin's future.
So far, Gavin’s own capture titled “Selfie in the Stands” is up for grabs, but his family told us there are more on the way with some of his most iconic meme images soon to be released in the near future.
Among the thousands of memes now circulating the web in a multitude of languages and formats, we asked which of them were particular favorites of his family, who shared “My Facial Expression 98% of the Day” and “When You Think You’ve been at work 4 hours but it’s only 17 minutes.”
As for Gavin, his favorite memes making the rounds online are Fortnite and Minecraft memes, which makes sense since he told us during our conversation that gaming is one of his favorite hobbies aside from tending to his flock of six chickens: named Rocky, Hen Hen, Peep, Timber, Wanda and Pickle.
So all these years later since Gavin first went viral and became a part of internet culture forever, how do he and his family reflect on the whole experience looking back on the last eight years?
“Some days I still can’t believe the whole experience so far,” Kate said. “It’s been so much fun to watch Gavin grow up. I have loved being able to read the comments and meet people who have watched him grow up with us. He has had a lot of fun with all of this. I hope people are able to continue using the memes as a way to express themselves for years to come!”
As for Gavin, he told us he just thinks it’s really cool, and his favorite part of all has been meeting new friends from all over the world.
Watch our interview with Gavin below for the video version of our discussion.
Gavin Thomas is a viral internet star who became the subject of numerous reaction images and memes in 2014 after appearing on Vine. To keep up with Gavin and his family, you can follow him on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter. To check out Gavin's upcoming NFT releases as part of a limited series highlighting his most memorable content, visit his page on Foundation for more. Proceeds will go towards Gavin’s future/college.