Buff Guys Help Out Nerdy Kid

About

Buff Guys Help Out Nerdy Kid refers to a three- and four-panel meme formats in which several bodybuilders, usually Flex Lewis, Mike O'Hearn and another unidentified muscular man, advise a male teenager sitting in front of a laptop on various subjects. A variation of Buff Guys Typing on Laptops, the spin-off format gained spread on Twitter and other social media in the second half of October 2019.

Origin

On October 16th, 2019, Twitter^[2] user @MiyaTheQueen posted the earliest meme which featured the addition of an additional panel to the Buff Guys Typing on Laptops format. The panel introduced a bespectacled male teenager sitting in front of the laptop, which circulated online at least since 2007^[3] and has been previously used in Wow, This Is Literally Me meme format and other memes (shown below). The tweet received over 6,400 retweets and 25,500 likes in three weeks.

Precursor

On February 21st, 2019, Twitter user @BitchAssBowie made the first viral meme based on an image of an unidentified bodybuilder using a laptop, with the meme imagining him as a person who would set an image of an anime girl as a profile picture (shown below, left).^[1] In the following months, more users posted memes which imagining muscular men expressing thoughts and ideas which are either wholesome or/and can be attributed to anime fans, gamers, avid readers, furries or members of other communities rarely associated with bodybuilding (examples shown below, center and right). Some examples of the format imagined two or more bodybuilders discussing various topics; for example, anime series.

Spread

Starting on October 16th, more Twitter users posted memes where the teenager offered poorly expressed arguments in contrast to well-expressed opinions offered by the bodybuilders (examples shown below).^[4][5]

Wholesome Versions

On October 18th, 2019, Twitter user @JasTheLass posted the version of the meme in which the teenager asked for guidance at the gym, with the bodybuilders being willing to help. The post received over 12,800 retweets and 51,300 likes in three weeks (shown below).^[6]

In the following days, wholesome versions of the meme in which bodybuilders provided guidance and advice to the teenager gained large popularity online on Twitter, Instagram, iFunny and other social networks (examples shown below).^[7][8] In many examples of the meme, slang compliment King is used.

Additionally, the meme, along with the parent Buff Guys on Laptops format, has been gained popularity in Redraws.

Peter Godofsky Discovery

On December 4th, 2021, Twitter user @PeterGodofsky discovered that the "nerdy kid" in the meme is most likely a 2004 picture of him at Lego League.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References