A Soldier Asked Eminem For His Autograph

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About

A Soldier Asked Eminem For His Autograph refers to a series of Faith In Humanity Restored memes that share a story claiming a soldier once asked the rapper Eminem for an autograph, Eminem responding, "Sure, if I can have yours." The story was first shared on Twitter in 2014 and spread over the following years, becoming the subject of ironic memes in the following years. The story is unconfirmed and likely untrue.

Origin

The earliest known post sharing the story about Eminem and the soldier was posted by Twitter^[11] user @d12question on December 31st, 2013, writing, "Once a soldier asked Eminem for an autograph and Eminem replied with 'sure if I can have yours'," garnering one like. On April 30th, 2014, Twitter^[1] user @Eminem_Lyrics__ posted an image macro showing a photo of Eminem captioned, "A soldier asked Eminem for his autograph, Eminem replied: sure, if I can have yours," garnering over 20,000 likes and 13,000 retweets in eight years (shown below). This is the earliest known post sharing the story in a meme. There is no evidence to support that the story is true.

Spread

The story spread through memes both doubting its truth and assuming it's true as an example of a wholesome meme. On May 26th, 2014, iFunny^[2] user Eminem posted a version of the meme that garnered over 428,000 smiles in eight years (shown below). On May 28th, the meme was shared to /r/thatHappened^[3] by a user doubtful of the story's accuracy, garnering over 230 upvotes in eight years. Another version was uploaded to Know Your Meme's^[4] "Faith in Humanity Restored" entry in June 2014. On May 29th, Facebook^[5] page Rush Limbaugh and the EIB Network shared the meme, writing, "Eminem's response to a soldier who asked him for his autograph is going viral. I really hope it's true! Best. Response. Ever," garnering over 3,000 reactions and 500 shares in eight years.

In August 2014, a Quora^[10] user shared the story to a post wondering what kind of person Eminem is in real life, claiming it to be true, garnering over 47,000 views and 300 upvotes in eight years. The memes inspired ironic variations in the late 2010s and 2020s. On October 20th, 2020, a Reddit user posted an ironic version of the meme to /r/okbuddyretard,^[6] garnering over 10,000 upvotes in two years (shown below, left). On April 17th, 2021, another Redditor posted a version of the meme to /r/okbuddyretard,^[7] garnering over 5,000 upvotes in a year (shown below, right).

On February 17th, 2022, Instagram^[8] user playboisucc posted a version of the meme, garnering over 9,000 likes in seven months. On September 5th, 2022, a Redditor posted a collection of the meme to /r/okbuddyretard,^[9] garnering over 10,000 upvotes in two days (shown below).