Tom Usher

Submission 5,389

About

Tom Usher, also known as Tommy T, is a writer and journalist who is most known online for starting "Friday Cheers" and a photo of him dressed as a British police officer that is used as an exploitable in memes. He started working for VICE in 2015, and since then, he has built a cult following on Twitter most notably.

Background

Tom Usher was hired at VICE News in February 2015, publishing his first article^[1] on February 26th. He continued to post articles for VICE until late 2019, with his thematic focus shifting towards "Gonzo Journalism" (articles written with the author as its protagonist from a first-person POV), wherein many of his articles, he would report on wild events or tasks he either went to or completed.

This thematic interest later blended into his video work for VICE when he started his series called "Challenge Man." The series started on June 14th, 2020, when VICE uploaded a YouTube ^[2] video, titled "Competitive Nettle Eating is Brutal," where Usher eats stinging nettles, earning roughly 317,800 views over the course of two years (shown below, left). "Taking On a Monster Fry-Up in a Hollowed Out Loaf," was another video in the series uploaded on June 21st, where Usher eats a giant sandwich consisting of all the elements of a Full English Breakfast (shown below, right).

Friday Cheers

During the COVID-19 pandemic, England was hit with many lockdown orders and curfew mandates in regards to the number of cases within the country. As a response to being alone while quarantining, Usher started doing a weekly "Friday Cheers" with his followers on Twitter in which he'd toast a beer with them via a photograph. He posted his first "Friday Cheers" tweet^[2] on May 7th, 2020 (shown below), receiving 100 likes for it over the course of two years. Multiple users^[3]^[4] in the replies of the tweet added onto the "cheers," giving their own salutes with their own drinks.

Usher continued to do "Friday Cheers" throughout 2020 and into 2021, spreading awareness of his page to more users.

Police Officer Photo

A photograph of Tom Usher dressed as a British police officer started to be used as an exploitable in memes in late 2020. He first posted the selfie photograph to his Instagram ^[5] account on November 13th, 2020, earning over 250 likes in one year (shown below, left). He also posted it to his Twitter^[6] on the same day, captioning it, "You’re all under arrest. For the crime of not posting cheers pics," receiving over 400 likes in the same amount of time (shown below, right).

On November 19th, 2020, he used the photo again in a quote tweet,^[7] receiving over 1,000 likes in one year (shown below). This tweet more notably helped popularize the photograph.

In March 2021 is when the Tom Usher police photo started being used en masse on Twitter. For instance, on March 22nd, 2021, Twitter^[8] user 2012Studies used the photo in a tweet that received roughly 1,000 likes in 10 months (shown below, left). On April 6th, 2021, Facebook^[9] page Edifess posted a text screenshot of a conversation with a spam bot. The meme creator in the screenshot had set up their auto-reply for spam bots to send the photo of Tom Usher as a cop. The Facebook post received 248 reactions over nine months. It was also reposted by Usher on Twitter^[10] the same day, receiving roughly 1,600 reactions in the same amount of time (shown below, right).

Blocked By Hellmann's Mayonaise

Sparked from discourse online surrounding West Elm Caleb, the official Twitter^[11] account of Hellmann's Mayonaise tweeted "West Elm Caleb thinks mayo is spicy" on January 21st, 2022, receiving 184 likes in three days. The next day, Tom Usher replied to their tweet, emphasizing that real people actually have a medical condition where the blandest food is still spicy, including himself. The reply^[12] earned roughly 1,200 likes over two days. This led to a long thread between Usher and other Twitter users who wondered if he was being serious or not (shown below).

Later on the 21st, Usher was blocked by Hellmann's for the discourse, tweeting^[13] a screenshot of the proof and earning over 400 likes in three days (shown below).