Jason Momoa's Bodyguards

About

Jason Momoa's Bodyguards refers to a series of memes centered around a viral 2017 photograph of actor Jason Momoa walking next to his two bodyguards. After a user highlighted that Momoa significantly surpasses his security team in size, the image became a subject of If You Ever Feel Useless memes and posts in which users made humorous assumptions about the purpose of the bodyguards.

Origin

On January 27th, 2017, several news outlets including Daily Mail^[1] posted a photograph of actor Jason Momoa next to two of his bodyguards near Jimmy Kimmel Live! studio (shown below, left). On the same day, Twitter^[2] user @IcecreamGenius posted the photograph, writing that Momoa's bodyguards looked like "mini-bosses" compared to Momoa. The tweet (shown below, right) received over 33,900 retweets and 67,700 likes in four years.

Spread

The tweet was followed by a number of humorous posts about Momoa and his bodyguards in the following days. For example, on January 28th, 2017, Twitter^[3] user @Grizzly_Berry posted a meme that received over 2,100 retweets and 3,600 likes in four years (shown below, left).

In late December 2018, the image again gained popularity as a subject of jokes after on December 12th Twitter^[4] user @Cinesnark tweeted the image, writing "What even is the point of Jason Momoa's bodyguards," with the now-deleted post gaining over 28,800 retweets and 93,400 likes in two years (examples^[5][6] shown below).

On May 30th, 2021, Twitter^[7] user @HeyokaEmpath01 again posted the image, writing, "Can anyone explain the rationale for Jason Mamoa’s bodyguards." The tweet gained over 5,700 retweets and 91,300 likes in four days (shown below, left). In the following days, multiple users quote-retweeted the post, writing humorous assumptions about the purpose of the bodyguards. For example, a June 1st, 2021, tweet^[8] by user @Thelaserbearguy received over 27,100 retweets and 214,700 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References