Bill Gates Walking / Bill Gates Boobs

About

Bill Gates Walking, also known as Bill Gates Crossing Street or Bill Gates Boobs, refers to multiple image macros and viral videos that show Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates walking in public. Due to the angle of the camera, Bill Gates' body appears exaggeratedly overweight with his stomach and chest emphasized. In 2021 and 2022, a video surfaced on Twitter in which Gates' chest had been digitally manipulated to look bigger.

Origin

On May 21st, 2021, the YouTube channel Gossip Bae posted a paparazzi-style video of Bill Gates in New York City walking around downtown Manhattan soon after his divorce. Over the course of one year, the video received roughly 53,800 views (shown below).

On May 24th, 2021, Twitter^[1] user Anthony67218025 shared a video that appeared to be the same as the aforementioned one, however, this new video made it appear that Gates had a larger chest than in reality. Over the course of one year, the video received roughly 4,800 views (shown below). The video was originally posted in a since-deleted tweet, sent by user mazemoore^[4] on May 24th, 2021.

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On May 24th, 2021, Twitter^[2] user Leerose1985 tweeted, "Why is Bill Gates walking around with boobies? 😭😂 is it real?!" earning roughly 1,200 likes in one year (shown below, left). On May 26th, 2021, Twitter^[3] user ArtValley818_ tweeted, "Bill Gates has boobs 🤣" earning roughly 1,100 likes in one year (shown below, right).

A year later, on April 16th, 2022, Gates was spotted on a night out in New York City and photographed by the paparazzi agency Splash News. Photographs from the outing were shared by the Daily Mail^[5] with one of them being of Gates in a grey sweater (shown below, left). The photograph inspired more discourse about Gates' body. For instance, on April 17th, 2021, Twitter^[5] user RealBrenda_ tweeted the photo, making a point about the alleged consequences of eating synthetic meat and received over 390 likes in nine days (shown below, right).

In late April 2022, leading up to his purchase of Twitter, Elon Musk began feuding with Gates regarding an investment blunder surrounding Tesla. On April 22nd, 2022, Musk tweeted^[6] an image of Gates compared side-by-side to the pregnant man emoji. The tweet received roughly 1.3 million likes in four days (shown below).

The tweet brought their dispute to the forefront of Twitter and social media. Subsequently, on April 23rd, 2022, Twitter^[7] user mazemoore reposted their May 2021 video of Gates walking, captioning it, "Elon Musk is in trouble now. Bill Gates spotted outside of Tesla headquarters." Over the course of three days, the video received roughly 1.8 million views and 19,600 likes (shown below).

Twitter users started reacting to the video en masse, either believing it was real or trying to debunk it. The discussion became so palpable that a tweet posted on May 25th, 2021, from fact-checking website Snopes resurfaced. Over the course of one year, the tweet received over 330 likes (shown below). Snopes deemed that the video was, in fact, fake.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References