Uncle Denzel

About

Uncle Denzel is a reaction image featuring an uncharacteristic photograph of American actor Denzel Washington taken at the Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao boxing match in early May 2015. In the photograph, Washington has a handlebar-style mustache and appears to have an extreme overbite, leading many on the internet to joke that the man in the photograph is an aging, working class uncle.

Origin

On May 2nd, 2015, Washington was photographed at the Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao boxing match wearing an Adidas tracksuit, Yankee baseball cap and a handlebar-style mustache. The next day, users began making jokes about the photograph, noting that the man in the picture did not look at Washington. On May 3rd, Twitter user and comedian TheDiLLon1 tweeted "Hi. I’m Denzel Washington and I have DirectTV. and I’m Uncle Denzel and I’ve got cable," accompanied by a comparison photo of a clean-shaven Denzel. The tweet received 5,864 retweets and 3,898 favorites in about a week.

Spread

After the success of TheDiLLon1's initial tweet, the hashtag #uncledenzel began trending on Twitter, featuring various humorous captions depicting Washington as a working class uncle. On May 4th, 2015, Redditor saynotogymtimidation posted an Uncle Denzel tweet by user @desusnice captioned with a joke about BBQ grilling to /r/blackpeopletwitter,^[6] where it received upwards of 1,200 votes (96% upvoted) prior to being archived.

In the coming days, the news sites Complex Magazine,^[2] VH1^[3] and Vibe Magazines^[4] published collections of tweets and Instagram photos featuring the Washington photograph. On November 24th, 2015, the @TastelessGents^[7] Twitter feed posted another photograph of Washington from the boxing event with the caption "Having to remind your uncle that it's his niece so he needs to stop staring" along with the hashtag "#ThanksgivingWithBlackFamilies" (shown below). That day, a screenshot of the tweet was submitted to /r/blackpeopletwitter.^[8]

Denzel Washington's Response

On September 14th, 2016, journalist @BlogXilla tweeted an clip from an interview he conducted with Washington, in which he asks what he thinks about the internet meme. Washington responded by saying "If I had my wallet, I'd show it t you" and adding "those who can do and those who can’t talk about those who can," suggesting that he had more money and talent than people sharing the meme online (shown below). In less than six hours, the tweet gathered upwards of 1,00 likes and 900 retweets.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References