What do you do if something bad happens to you? Sure, you could cry, swear or get angry. Or, you could share a meme of Bad Luck Brian.
With his checkered sweater-vest, strawberry blonde hair and braces, Bad Luck Brian's face is recognisable to internet users across the globe, though his image is usually accompanied by some bold text detailing one unfortunate series of events or another.
From everything from getting hit by a firetruck to straight up sh*tting his pants, Brian has been through it all. But Brian doesn't actually exist - his image actually belongs to Kyle Craven, from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
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Craven was in his 20s when a friend shared his old school photo on Reddit, and 'Bad Luck Brian' was born.
The meme quickly went viral, and while he's previously said he 'doesn't mind' the fame, Craven pointed out that his meme was one of the worst, 'given what people write about on Bad Luck Brian'.
He said: "It is, ‘sh*ts his pants’ all the time or ‘gets erection in class'."
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Brian's look is an unforgettable one, but it doesn't actually reflect how Craven looked in his day-to-day life at the time it was taken.
Known as a class clown, Brian was determined to make the most out of his school's picture day and so headed to a discount thrift shop to pick up the now-iconic sweater-vest.
He purposefully rubbed his face to make it red, then pulled a big grin to create the face we all know so well. The picture didn't make it into the yearbook, but he scanned it to make sure it wouldn't be lost forever.
There are endless examples of bad luck that Brian has been exposed to over the years, but while the world has got used to seeing his un-ageing face, Craven himself has gone about his life.
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He no longer has braces, and after getting a degree in Construction Management he now works as Vice President at Craven Construction Company, which has been responsible for building churches.
In the years since Bad Luck Brian went viral, Craven has adopted a dog and got married. Unlike his meme, Craven told Buzzfeed in 2020 that he actually has 'great luck', evident in his success in sweepstakes, at bingo and on scratch cards.
Looking back, Craven says he doesn't have any regrets about going viral, saying he always considered Bad Luck Brian a 'blessing'.
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"I've had an extremely charmed life and I am the luckiest guy I know," he said.
Topics: Social Media, Viral
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Emily Brown