The web’s “Blinking Man” is buying and selling his meme fame for miles this weekend.
Drew Scanlon will journey 102 miles throughout the San Francisco Bay Space on Saturday to lift funds for a number of sclerosis analysis.
Scanlon stated his almost 10-year biking mission has raised greater than $250,000 for the illness, impressed by pals affected by MS.
Regardless of having one of the vital well-known faces on the planet, Scanlon stated he’s not typically acknowledged on the road. His fame comes not from something he’s posted or stated on-line, however from one thing intrinsically human: blinking. The meme originated throughout his time on the online game web site Large Bomb, when a co-worker made a joke throughout a livestream and Scanlon’s response — a easy blink — was captured.
“I don’t know who clipped it out or when or why,” Scanlon informed NBC Information in a telephone interview Friday, the day earlier than the Waves to Wind 2025 charity bike journey within the Bay Space.
“It was truly a couple of four-year hole between when the video truly aired and [when the] meme took off.”
To say the meme “took off” is likely to be an understatement. One model of Scanlon’s blinking face has been seen greater than 6 billion instances on Giphy alone, plastered in chat rooms, textual content messages and social media posts. “You understand when one thing like this occurs It may be sort of bewildering,” he says.
On the highway, Scanlon is extra often called “the man who raises all that meme cash” for MS, he stated.
He and his charity biking group, the Massive El West, have centered on elevating consciousness and funds for the neurological illness, which impacts 2.8 million folks globally. Ladies are twice as possible as males to develop MS, which might trigger imaginative and prescient issues, weak spot and issue strolling, based on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.
“It’s good to have discovered this outlet, and it’s nice to see that it continues to resonate with folks,” Scanlon stated.
