Distracted boyfriend, American Chopper yelling scene, Pepe the Frog, woman yelling at a cat \u2014 all memorable memes. But which one of those is the meme of the decade? It\u2019s a hotly contested topic, that\u2019s for sure. But according to image sharing platform Imgur, the most impactful meme of the decade is none of those.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe asked Imgurians to decide, once and for all, which meme was their favorite meme from the 2010s,\u201d the company wrote in a blog post. \u201cFrom 2,000 nominations, the top 10 were selected to battle it out in the final round. A total of 54,768 votes were cast in 72 hours by Imgurians. It was a close race, but we\u2019re proud to announce Imgur\u2019s Meme of the Decade is\u2026 Hide the Pain Harold.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHide the Pain Harold represents a deep-seated emotion, a quiet dread, or existential anguish that resides in all of us,\u201d Imgur writes.<\/span><\/p>\n To clinch this prestigious title, Harold edged out the \u201cbadly photoshopped Michael Cera\u201d and the \u201cthis is fine dog\u201d memes.<\/p>\n Grumpy Cat, Nodding Gandalf, and Obama-Biden Bromance were also among the top contestants.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t argue with the numbers.<\/p>\n The man behind the meme is\u00a0Andr\u00e1s Arat\u00f3, a retired engineer from Hungary whose rise to fame began with a random shoot for a stock photo website. \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNine years ago, I did a reverse image search on a photograph of me and was shocked to discover it had become a meme.\u201dArat\u00f3 wrote in a piece for The Guardian. \u201cPeople online thought my smile, combined with the look in my eyes, seemed terribly sad. They were calling me \u2018Hide the Pain Harold.’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe photo came from a shoot I\u2019d done a year earlier, when I was still working as an electrical engineer,\u201d he added. \u201cA professional photographer had got in touch after seeing my holiday photographs on Facebook. He said he was seeking someone like me to be in some stock images.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOnce the memes were out in the world, journalists began to contact me, and wanted to come to my home to interview me. My wife hated it: she thought it interfered in our private life and didn\u2019t like the way I was portrayed,\u201d he said. \u201cI was given a role in a television commercial for a Hungarian car dealer. [\u2026]\u00a0The fee for that commercial changed my wife\u2019s mind about the meme.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Congrats on the meme of the decade award, Harold. You\u2019re an absolute fucking legend.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/01\/WgtaJkT.jpg\")
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