Caging

About

Caging is a type of practical joke that involves taping photographic prints of the American actor Nicolas Cage to someone else’s room or belongings without knowledge or consent. The prank may be seen as a real life extension of the Nic Cage as Everyone project.

Origin

The earliest known documented case of Nicolas Cage photos used in a prank was uploaded by YouTuber youjustgotcaged on February 11th, 2011, featuring footage of a friend's room covered in printouts of Nicolas Cage's face (shown below).

Spread

On December 9th, 2011, DeviantArtist^[1] Pau-Norontaus uploaded a montage of photographs featuring his sister's room covered in Nicolas Cage pictures (shown below, left). On July 6th, 2012, the You've Been Caged^[8] Tumblr blog was launched, with its first post highlighting photographs of the back of an airplane seat with a picture of Nicolas Cage taped to it (shown below, right).

On November 20th, Urban Dictionary^[3] user The Cage Queen submitted an entry for the term "Caged," defining it as a practical joke in which someone's Facebook profile pictures and interests are changed to Nicolas Cage. The same day, Redditor the_riles posted a series of photographs of his coworker's Caged office desk to /r/funny,^[4] where it gathered upwards of 12,600 upvotes and 250 comments before it was archived (shown below, left). On December 27th, Redditor falconfalcone posted an album of photos featuring 200 nicolas cage photographs placed around a house to the /r/onetruegod^[2] subreddit (shown below, right). Prior to being archived, the post garnered more than 2,800 upvotes and 55 comments.

On February 5th, 2013, a screenshot of a greentext story about pranking a girlfriend with a picture of Nicolas Cage taped to a mannequin was submitted to /r/4chan,^[7] where it received over 6,500 upvotes and 45 comments before it was archived (shown below).

On April 10th, 2014, Redditor njmc2 submitted a photo of a cut-out of Nicolas Cage's face taped to the bottom of his mouse to /r/funny,^[5] where it garnered upwards of 7,500 upvotes and 130 comments in the next month. On June 5th, Redditor Sacred_Donut posted an image album containing photographs of an elaborate Caging prank in which 3,200 cut outs of the actor's face were pasted on various objects throughout his brother's house to /r/funny^[9] (shown below, middle, right). In the first 24 hours, the post gained over 16,500 upvotes and 500 comments. On the following day, Mashable^[10] published an article about the practical joke, which including a statement from the prankster claiming his brother was still finding photos around his house over a week later.

Acknowledgment from Nicolas Cage

On March 14th, 2022, during a Variety^[11] interview with the cast of the film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which Nicolas Cage plays himself, the interviewer asks Cage if he's familiar with the term "caging" in reference to the meme, then explains it to him. Cage reacts with bemusement before describing it as "fun but trippy." The video (seen below) received over 191,000 views and 2,600 likes in roughly three weeks.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References