BBC Homepage
  • Skip to content
  • Accessibility Help
  • Your account
  • Notifications
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • More menu
More menu
Search BBC
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
Close menu
BBC News
Menu
  • Home
  • InDepth
  • Israel-Gaza war
  • War in Ukraine
  • Climate
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Culture
More
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Health
  • Family & Education
  • In Pictures
  • Newsbeat
  • BBC Verify
  • Disability
  • BBC Trending

Charlie Chaplin: The original distracted boyfriend

  • Published
    12 June 2018
Share page
About sharing
Charlie Chaplin watches as a woman passes by. Beside Chaplin, what we assume to be his wife looks angrily at him. It is visually very similar to the distracted boyfriend meme that was popular in 2017.Image source, First National
Image caption,

This still from Charlie Chaplin film Pay Day was upvoted over 80,000 times on Reddit

ByTom Gerken
BBC UGC & Social News

Charlie Chaplin was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood's silent movie era. But was he a precursor to Internet humour?

He is now being dubbed, external the "inventor of memes" on Reddit due to the resemblance between a still from his 1922 film Pay Day and the 2017 "distracted boyfriend meme, external".

The image has been liked almost 300,000 times, external on Twitter, with people making their own memes about the coincidence.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post by Diana

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post by Diana

Distracted what-now?

Distracted boyfriend. It's the name given to a widely-shared stock image, external of a man looking at another woman while out with his partner.

Variants of the image were ubiquitous with social media in 2017 as people used the image to represent the feeling of coveting something they wanted.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 2 by class wario

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 2 by class wario

A year later, the meme has seen a resurgence through an unlikely source as Charlie Chaplin has now been dubbed, external "the original" distracted boyfriend.

Some variants of the "distracted Charlie" meme are jokes about the time period, external, with one user imagining how Chaplin felt about "talkies" - a colloquial term for film with audible dialogue.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 3 by Historicimage

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 3 by Historicimage

While some people created, external variants of the meme that referenced people in 2018 coveting the Chaplin still, others used the "distracted Charlie" meme to call attention to the surge of posts.

Though they seem to have struggled with how to spell his name.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 4 by Torville Redenbotter

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 4 by Torville Redenbotter

What is a meme?

  • The word meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene

  • Dawkins called memes "ideas that spread from brain to brain"

  • The Oxford English Dictionary defines memes as images, videos or text that are copied and spread by internet users, often with variations

Is this the original meme?

No.

We previously suggested that "the first meme" - a format-dependent joke, typically of a picture with a caption or subtitle - may have been published in 1919.

It would be more accurate to call Chaplin the original distracted boyfriend, though there is no suggestion that the 2017 meme was based on Chaplin's 1922 film.

Besides, there is one glaring difference between the two - it seems that the original still, taken from the 1922 film Pay Day, was mirrored to better resemble the meme, external.

Fortunately, a Twitter feed specialising in moving images from silent film has provided the original footage.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 5 by Silent Movie GIFs

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 5 by Silent Movie GIFs

You may also like:

  • Is this 1921 cartoon the first ever meme?

  • Is this a pigeon? A 2011 meme reincarnated in 2018

  • Exploring the life of a meme with American Chopper

More on this story

  • Is this 1921 cartoon the first ever meme?

    • Published
      16 April 2018
    On the left of the cartoon, a well-dressed attractive gentleman is captioned with "How you think you look when a flashlight is taken". On the right, an unattractive gentleman is captioned with "How you really look".
  • How a 2011 meme took over Twitter in 2018

    • Published
      15 May 2018
    This is the meme. A man gestures towards a butterfly and asks, is this a pigeon?
  • Exploring the life of a meme with American Chopper

    • Published
      17 April 2018
    Paul Jr and Paul Sr smile and stand beside each other. Paul Jr wears a baseball cap. Paul Sr wears a handlebar moustache.

Top stories

  • Ceasefire comes into force as IDF pulls out of parts of Gaza

    • Published
      2 hours ago
  • Live. 

    Massive blast at Tennessee explosives plant leaves several dead and others missing

    • 10861 viewing11k viewing
  • Thousands line streets for Ricky Hatton's funeral

    • Published
      3 hours ago

More to explore

  • What does wording of Gaza ceasefire agreement tell us?

    A woman on a cart in dusty landscape.
  • What to know about the charges against Letitia James in the US

    Letitia James gestures with her finger as she speaks.
  • How will the EU's new border system work?

    A crowd of people at London St Pancras station in London. They're carrying rucksacks or suitcases as they wait to go through departures and board a Eurostar train across the Channel.
  • Stop expecting perfection from us - top referee

    • Attribution
      Sport
    Anthony Taylor
  • Tech billionaires seem to be doom prepping. Should we all be worried?

    Mark Zuckerberg's eyes looking worried
  • Want to feel calmer? How 20 minutes outside will help

    A wide, front view angle shot of a family and their dog walking through a woodland forest in Northumberland, Northeastern England during the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Huge buzz but a big gamble: Battlefield 6 takes aim at Call of Duty

    Screenshot from Battlefield 6 shows a female sniper resting her cheek on the stock of a long-range rifle as she looks down its scope. There is a look of concentration on her face, which is flecked with black dust.
  • As Nobel Prize goes to Venezuela's opposition leader, how far would Trump go to help her?

     Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to her chest with one hand, surrounded by a crowd of men
  • The Upbeat newsletter: Start your week on a high with uplifting stories delivered to your inbox

    A graphic of a wave in the colours of yellow, amber and orange against a pink sky
loading elsewhere stories

Most read

  1. 1

    Trump threatens to pull out of planned Xi meeting

  2. 2

    What does wording of Gaza ceasefire agreement tell us?

  3. 3

    Thousands line streets for Ricky Hatton's funeral

  4. 4

    Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize

  5. 5

    Gregg Wallace claims BBC caused him 'distress and harassment'

  6. 6

    Melania Trump says Putin responded to her pleas about Ukrainian children

  7. 7

    MTV to axe its music TV channels in the UK

  8. 8

    Ceasefire comes into force as IDF pulls out of parts of Gaza

  9. 9

    Actress Alex Kingston reveals womb cancer diagnosis

  10. 10

    Green turtle bounces back from brink in conservation 'win'

BBC News Services

  • On your mobile
  • On smart speakers
  • Get news alerts
  • Contact BBC News

The Celebrity Traitors

  • An all-star cast enters the ultimate game of deceit

    • Attribution
      iPlayer

    Added to Watchlist
    The Celebrity Traitors has been added to your iPlayer Watchlist.
    The Celebrity Traitors
  • All the betrayal and drama unpacked

    • Attribution
      iPlayer

    Added to Watchlist
    The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked has been added to your iPlayer Watchlist.
    The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked
  • Meet the Celebrity Traitors as the mind games begin

    • Attribution
      iPlayer

    Added to Watchlist
    The Celebrity Traitors has been added to your iPlayer Watchlist.
    The Celebrity Traitors
  • A treacherously good version of a pop classic

    • Attribution
      iPlayer

    Added to Watchlist
    BBC Proms has been added to your iPlayer Watchlist.
    BBC Proms 2025: Britney Spears
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • Terms of Use
  • About the BBC
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility Help
  • Parental Guidance
  • Contact the BBC
  • Make an editorial complaint
  • BBC emails for you

Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.