Stoned Alien Tom Brady

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About

Stoned Alien Tom Brady is an exploitable image macro meme based on a photograph of NFL football player and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady at a press conference in mid-September 2022. Following footage of Brady during the conference spreading online shortly after, many users felt the clips showed him seeming to dissociate and appear markedly unhealthy or unhappy, as well as high or stoned. As a result, screenshots of Brady staring blankly began seeing use in image caption memes, primarily on Twitter.

Origin

In a September 15th, 2022, press conference ahead of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers week two game against the New Orleans Saints, Tom Brady fielded questions about his personal life.^[1] Following Brady's decision to unretire from the NFL in early 2022, purported troubles in his marriage with supermodel Gisele Bündchen have attracted much attention in the press.^[2] During the interview, which was uploaded to the official Buccaneers YouTube channel that same day as it accumulated over 50,000 views in four days, Brady is seen wearing a backward baseball cap and a T-shirt for his nutrition brand, TB12.

Several commentators and journalists reporting on the interview that day pointed out that Brady appeared unhealthy and emaciated.^[3] A series of screenshots from the video, including one of Brady appearing to dissociate, circulated online as memes the following day.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Twitter account tweeted video clips from the interview with Brady on September 15th, but prominent instances of the meme did not start to circulate until the 16th and 17th. For example, on September 16th, 2022, Twitter user @prophethusband tweeted a screencap of Brady using him to represent themselves trying to use an appliance while intoxicated,^[4] receiving over 21,000 likes in two days (seen below).

Spread

Over the following days, others also used the image to comment on Brady's personal situation or well-being. For example, Twitter user @BaileyCarlin tweeted about Brady's health on September 17th, 2022, earning over 12,500 likes over a day (seen below, left).^[5] That same day, Twitter user @piadas_nfl tweeted about Brady's reportedly frayed relationship with his wife (seen below, right; English translation: "Tom Brady is living proof that no matter who you are, you will get fucked when a woman breaks up with you"), which received over 440 likes in a similar timeframe.^[6]

There were also many jokes about Tom Brady appearing to be an alien. One such example was posted on September 17th via a tweet by Twitter user @osullyville, which received over 340 likes in a day (shown below).^[7]