Was Pops Wrong For This? / JaMar Pittman

Submission 12,061

Part of a series on Viral Videos. [View Related Entries]

About

Was Pops Wrong For This? refers to a viral video of a CNN interview with the Pittman family in which the father, JaMar Pittman, also known as Pastor JaMar D. Pittman, appeared to be holding back laughter and then failing, laughing into his shirt, despite being in a serious situation with the CNN headline reading, 15-YEAR-OLD SCHOOL SHOOTING SUSPECT CHARGED AS AN ADULT WITH TERRORISM, FIRST-DEGREE MURDER." The interview took place shortly after the 2021 shooting of Oxford High School in Michigan, where the son, JeVon Pittman, was a student. Another part of the video included Pittman pointing with his thumb over to his son when crying about a lost classmate. The video of Pittman became a reaction video and GIF on Twitter / X and elsewhere going into the 2020s, used to portray holding back laughter. An Instagram RapTV-like infographic that asked the question, "Was Pops Wrong For This?" went viral in 2023, spawning the nickname "Pops" for JaMar Pittman. In 2024, internet users discovered Pittman's YouTube channel and other photos of him online in which he was often sporting a grey beard. People then photoshopped him into memes and rotoscoped him into videos using ViggleAI. Many compared the Pops video to IShowSpeed Trying Not To Laugh.

Origin

On November 30th, 2021, a school shooting occurred at Oxford High School in Michigan.^[1] On December 2nd, CNN posted a segment from their coverage to YouTube^[2] titled, "Student breaks down after learning classmate died in shooting." The segment was an interview with the Pittman family whose son, JeVon Pittman, lost two classmates in the shooting. At the video's 4:38-minute mark (shown below), JeVon says that his dad is his hero and the camera pans over to his dad, JaMar Pittman, who's seen holding back tears and then crying into his shirt. The moment also looks like he's holding back laughter. Over three years, the video received over 6.6 million views.

The video did not receive meme attention until April 2023, when a since-deleted TikToker named @axmuus posted a long clip of the CNN segment. The TikTok was then reposted by X^[3] user @dchocolatedoll on April 3rd, 2023, who captioned it, "😭😭 I bussed out laughing soon as I seen the daddy , cause it be the serious moments where u don’t wanna laugh but yo body can’t control it 😭😭," gaining over 4,000 likes in a few hours (shown below). The tweet was later deleted after going viral.

Later on April 3rd, 2023, Instagram^[4] user @hiphopties uploaded a carousel post that included two screen-recordings of @dchocolatedoll's tweet and an infographic that read, "WAS POPS WRONG FOR THIS?" The post gained over 85,200 likes in a year (shown below).

Spread

Going into April 2023, people began using the video as a reaction on X.^[5]^[6] In June 2023, usage became increasingly viral, evident in a quote shared by X^[7] user @crackcobain__ on June 2nd, who used the video to react to a tweet reading, "having a fat white bm worse than snitching imo," gaining over 34,000 likes in a year (shown below).

On June 11th, 2023, X^[8] user @upblissed quoted an old photo of JaMar Pittman posted to Pittman's X,^[9] account, writing, "so this nigga always been unserious," gaining over 34,000 likes in a year (shown below, left).

On June 12th, 2023, X^[10] user @ButtCrackSports tweeted a photo of JeVon Pittman wearing a Los Angeles Clippers shirt, writing, "The kid who made pops laugh is a Clippers fan 😭😭😭," receiving over 2,300 likes in a year (shown below, right).

Usage of the reaction video continued on X^[11] in late 2023.

In 2024, memes about JaMar Pittman resurfaced en masse when X^[12] user @OJSIMPS0NBURNER shared the video in a quote on March 6th, 2024, responding to the prompt, "What viral video makes you laugh no matter how many times you watch it?" The quote gained over 29,000 likes in three months (shown below).

Multiple memes were posted in the quote's replies, many of which centered on Pittman's thumb-pointing. For instance, on March 6th, 2024, X^[13] user @nflyb15 tweeted a video showing a crowd of people cheering at Pittman's thumb point, receiving over 260 likes in three months (shown below).

During the same timeframe, users found Pittman's YouTube^[14] channel and a 30-minute-long lecture that was uploaded to it. For instance, on April 13th, 2024, X^[15] user @spoonlocks tweeted two screenshots of comments left on the YouTube video, seemingly shared by Pittman's wife who was defending her husband (shown below). @spoonlocks captioned the images, "Pops’ wife out here fighting for her life in his YT comments😭," gaining over 59,000 likes in two months.

In late May and early June 2024, a slew of IShowSpeed Trying Not To Laugh Edits surfaced on X and many compared the meme to the ones about Pops. For instance, on June 5th, 2024, X^[16] user @Lamar4six tweeted a meme that referenced both trends, gaining over 3,100 likes in two days (shown below).