#PhelpsFace / Angry Michael Phelps

Submission 42,740

Part of a series on 2016 Summer Olympics. [View Related Entries]

About

#PhelpsFace, also known as Angry Michael Phelps, is a hashtag series of jokes based on broadcast footage and images of American swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps looking rather sullen while focusing on his pre-game meditation for the 200-meters Butterfly semifinals match in men's swimming at the Summer Olympics in August 2016.

Origin

On August 8th, 2016, just moments before the 200m Butterfly semifinals went underway, one of NBC Sports camera crews covering the event spotted Michael Phelps, the American competition swimmer and the most decorated Olympian athlete of all time, mentally preparing himself in the bench area with a very serious look on his face, while his South African competitor Chad le Clos could be seen jumping around and shadowboxing in the vicinity (shown below; embed disabled).

Spread

As video clips and screenshots of Michael Phelps from the live broadcast began entering online circulation, viewers on Twitter quickly started churning out jokes that characterize the celebrity athlete as an irritable individual easily distressed by mild inconveniences and nuisances^[3]^[4]^[5], including several instances that cross-reference other popular media franchises and internet memes, such as the plot of the Star Wars saga,^[1] "Arthur's Fist" and Harambe the gorilla.^[2]

On August 9th, Redditor BroLo_El_Cunado submitted an image of the frowny-faced athlete with the caption referencing the "Some of You Guys Are Alright" meme to /r/BlackPeopleTwitter^[11] in a post titled "Active Swimmer Situation down in Rio," parodying a generic headline that is typically associated with breaking news stories on mass shootings. Within the first three hours, the post gained 2,662 points (93% upvotes) and hundreds of comments.

News Media Coverage

That same day, dozens of major U.S. news outlets covered the online reaction to Phelps's single-minded warm-up routine, including The Daily Dot,^[6] CNN,^[7] USA Today,^[8] Rolling Stone^[9] and others,^[10] many of which underscored the moment as the latest meme to spring up from the Summer Olympics under its new moniker "Angry Michael Phelps," while CNN described it as the 2016 successor to the Unimpressed McKayla meme featuring American gymnast McKayla Maroney that had gone viral during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.