Ben Affleck Sleeping On A Boat

Submission 4,378

Part of a series on Reaction Images. [View Related Entries]

About

Ben Affleck Sleeping On A Boat or Ben Affleck Sleeping In Paris refers to several viral photos of actor Ben Affleck napping with his mouth open while reclined in a chair on a boat in Paris from mid-2022. The pictures were widely celebrated and parodied on social media after being posted in July 2022, with many users on Twitter using the images as exploitables for image macros and other memes.

Origin

On July 23rd, 2022, paparazzi photographs of actor Ben Affleck vacationing in Paris with his new wife Jennifer Lopez and his daughter were posted by TMZ.^[1] In particular, they published several pictures of Affleck napping on the deck of a boat, lounging on a chair with his head thrown back and his mouth agape (shown below).

That afternoon, the pictures were discussed on social media, particularly on Twitter, where users joked about previous Affleck memes that made him look haggard and tired, such as Ben Affleck Smoking or Ben Affleck Juggling Dunkin' Donuts, and celebrated that he seemed to be in a better place. On July 24th, Twitter user @strangeharbors^[2] wrote, "Ben Affleck really endured years of memes and spilled Dunkin’ Donuts to come out the other side passed out on a boat married to Jennifer Lopez. Incredible," gaining over 6,200 retweets and 97,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Spread

The images quickly became reaction image memes on Twitter after their release on July 23rd, 2022. For example, on July 24th, Twitter user @KellaKiara^[3] simply labeled the photos a "mood," gaining over 50 retweets and 180 likes in two days (shown below, left). Twitter user @dahiyaknight^[4] made a joke that same day about Affleck falling asleep in a movie, gaining over 20 retweets and 150 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

On July 26th, 2022, Twitter user @Alejandrobot^[5] posted a photoshop of the image, making it look like the cover of Radiohead's second album The Bends. The tweet gained over 1,600 retweets and 16,000 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below).

However, while the images were described as "meme material" on websites like BuzzFeed,^[6] it seems that there were generally few memes and parodies made of the pictures, though they did inspire commentary.