About

Confused John Cena is a reaction image macro series featuring a GIF of professional wrestler John Cena with a shocked expression on his face.

Origin

On April 7th, 2013, at Wrestlemania 29, John Cena and The Rock wrestled for the WWE Championship.^[1] During the match, Cena attempts to pin the Rock, but when the Rock kicks out of the pin, Cena reacts with a confused expression at about 32 minutes into the match (video shown below).

On May 7th, 2013, Tumblr ^[2] user wrestlingwithemotions shared a GIF of the image. The post, which is the earliest available version, received more than 265 notes in less than seven years (shown below).

Spread

Two years later, on February 13th, 2015, Tumblr^[3] user n-a-blue-box shared the GIF as a reaction to the shower thoughts account post "'Queue' is just 'Q' followed by 4 silent letters." The post received more than 375,000 notes in little more than five years (shown below).

Months later, on September 14th, 2015, Redditor ^[4] moistbutter posted the GIF in the /r/reactiongifs subreddit, receiving more than 12,000 points (86% upvoted) and 460 comments in less five years. In the following years, the GIF saw moderate spread in GIF captions on iFunny.

In 2020, the GIF went viral on Reddit in a series of captioned image macros. For example, on March 20th, Redditor^[5] ShyGuyMemes shared a Government: Work From Home meme with the reaction. The post received more than 99,000 points (96% upvoted) and 250 comments in less than three days (shown below, left).

That day, Redditor^[6] MilkyChast posted the reaction as the punchline to a joke about a woman flirting with a man. The post received more than 84,000 points (95% upvoted) and 480 comments in less than three days (shown below, center). Throughout the week, others began using the GIF (example below, right).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References