Description
In August 2009, a 46-year-old man in eyeliner uploaded a few mirror selfies to MySpace under the name CrisXcruX. Within three weeks, the internet had renamed him Emo Dad. Within two years, he was one of the most recognizable faces of the image-macro era. And then the trail went cold: the profile returned "410 Gone," the forums that argued about him shut down, the meme generators died, and Know Your Meme's entry has said "identity unknown" since 2012. Seventeen years later, nobody has ever publicly identified him.
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Produced and Written by Andy Sowar
Edited by Mica Sandi / Milan Labs
SOURCES
Emo Dad on Know Your Meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/emo-dad Emo Dad image gallery (KYM): https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/emo-dad/photos
KYM meme-research thread, 2010: https://knowyourmeme.com/forums/meme-research/topics/5072-emo-dad
"Reviewing the Classic 'Emo Dad' Meme 14 Years Later" (KYM editorial, 2023): https://knowyourmeme.com/editorials/meme-review/reviewing-the-classic-emo-dad-meme-14-years-later
KYM's 2023 short on Emo Dad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUh80JiQJ5Y
Earliest known repost — FunnyJunk, Sep 1 2009: https://funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/42783/Emo+Dad/
BuzzFeed "emo dad," Nov 2009 (archived): https://web.archive.org/web/20091120090522/https://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/emo-dad-cci BuzzFeed
"Best of Emo Dad," Feb 2011: https://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/best-of-emo-dad-bif r/pics "Emo dad," Jan 2011: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/fboze/emo_dad/
Advice Animals on Know Your Meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/advice-animals Facebook overtakes MySpace in the U.S. (PCWorld, Jun 2009): https://www.pcworld.com/article/523618/facebook_overtakes_myspace_in_us.html MySpace to cut 30 percent of staff (NPR, Jun 2009): https://www.npr.org/2009/06/17/105504364/myspace-to-cut-30-percent-of-jobs
MySpace deletes user blogs in new-platform launch (TechCrunch, Jun 2013): https://techcrunch.com/2013/06/12/bring-the-blogs-back/
Fine Brothers launch "Emo Dad" animated series (AWN, 2013): https://www.awn.com/news/fine-brothers-launch-emo-dad-animated-web-series
Fine Bros "Emo Dad" season 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOWUUZBqMN4
Avenged Sevenfold, City of Evil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Evil
0:00 The most famous photo on MySpace
1:04 MySpace in 2009
2:13 The profile
3:03 The poem
4:17 The spread
5:52 The image macro era
6:31 The Fine Bros series
7:17 Did anyone try to find him?
7:52 The trail goes cold
8:40 The internet grows up
9:58 The rumor
10:25 People who knew him
11:12 The Instagram account
12:49 Our first attempt
13:52 What we found
14:26 The door is open