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"The Worst Man in the World": The Story of How a Spaniard Accidentally Became a Meme and Became Famous Around the World
28.05.2024 10:33
This is not a fictional story, but a real incident from the life of a person who is our contemporary.
No one would have ever known anything about the Spaniard Josep Maria Garcia if chance had not intervened in the person of his brother-in-law.
Garcia later shared his impressions with journalists from The Guardian.
A random photo of the Spaniard Garcia first earned him the nickname "the worst man in the world." But soon the man achieved real fame.
How it was
The photo was taken in 2014 by his brother-in-law, a professional photographer, while they were on a business trip to Barcelona.
To set up his camera, the man decided to take a photo of his relative.
In the photo, the balding 34-year-old Garcia narrowed his eyes slightly, put on a serious expression and pursed his lips. In his opinion, the image was supposed to be piercing.
Both Garcia and his relative liked the photo, after which the men decided to upload it to the American photo stock Getty Images.
A few years passed, and in 2018, American satirical magazine ClickHole used Garcia's photo for a story titled "Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point."
The Spaniard read the article, but did not attach any importance to the photo or content.
The phenomenon of the meme to the people
But then the pandemic hit, and one fine day in 2020, Garcia's brother-in-law called and suggested Googling the phrase "worst person you know."
The search engine produced Garcia's face - that same ill-fated and accidental photo.
Soon, in the West, the Spaniard's photo even began to be used on social networks when people wrote comments about people they didn't like for various reasons.
It was then crossed with pop culture memes and even placed under an article about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
But there were also extremely negative comments that Garcia had the face of a Nazi, that there was no sympathy in his gaze, etc.
For a long time, the Spaniard avoided talking to the press. But now he is already thinking about selling T-shirts with his photo and the headline that made him famous all over the world.
Earlier we talked about how many people can fit inside a soap bubble .
