Ned Leeds Just Standing There

About

Ned Leeds Just Standing There refers to an exploitable image of the Spider-Man character Ned Leeds, played by Jacob Batalon, dressed in a magenta shirt and blue jeans standing with a blank expression facing sideways. In late December 2021, the exploitable gained virality in memes, being edited and photoshopped into various images out of context.

Origin

On September 6th, 2016, celebrity gossip and entertainment news company Just Jared^[11] posted a collection of photographs from the set of the 2017 superhero film Spider-Man: Homecoming. In one photograph actors Tom Holland and Jacob Batalon (who plays Ned Leeds) stand next to each other (shown below, left).

On May 28th, 2021, artist mjdartworks posted a fan-made poster for the then-upcoming superhero film Spider-Man: No Way Home to Instagram,^[1] with the post gaining over 1,000 likes in seven months (shown below, right). In the poster, a cutout of Batalon from the 2016 photograph was placed on an edge of a rooftop, with the character appearing out of place. The transparent PNG of Ned Leeds used in the image was posted by DeviantArt^[5] user DarthSpiderMaul on March 19th, 2020.

Spread

On June 5th, 2021, Twitter^[2] user @aidenlampitt tweeted the fan-made poster together with a close-up image of Ned, writing, "💀💀💀". The post gained over 5,400 retweets and 53,300 likes in seven months (shown below).

Prior to December 2021, the close-up image was used in several high engagement posts, including August and September tweets^[3][4] by users @DamnedDoorMat and @Blanked__Space (shown below, left and right).

On December 22nd, 2021, Twitter^[6] gimmick account Ned Leeds photoshopped into random images (@nedphotoshops) was created, editing the transparent PNG of Ned Leeds into various viral images. On that day, the account posted^[7][8] its first several edits, including a Joker Stairs meme and a Your Name meme (shown below, left and right).

On December 27th, 2021, Twitter^[9] user @ratfoob placed the exploitable onto the gradient background from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with the post gaining over 5,300 retweets and 60,800 likes in two days (shown below).

The virality of the tweet prompted more posts in which Ned Leeds was edited into various images in the following days. For example, on December 27th, 2021, Twitter^[10] user @plutotides posted an Avatar: The Last Airbender meme that gained over 3,600 retweets and 27,500 likes in two days.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References