Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Cigar Guy Revealed!


UK’s Daily Mail photographer Mark Pain snapped an amazing shot of Tiger Woods’ golf ball flying towards his camera at the 2010 Ryder Cup. As the picture began circulating on the net, many people noticed an interesting looking man in the audience.
At first it appears he was wearing a turban, but as other photos surfaced it became clear that he was wearing a brown wig and a fake mustache. It was proposed and generally accepted that he may have been paying tribute to Spanish golfer Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Dubbed “Cigar Guy”, “Smiling Cigar Guy”, “Cigar Man”, and even “Ashraf”, he quickly became an exploitable joining the likes of Sad Keanu, Strutting Leo, and Prancing Cera.

Cigar guy took off in search fairly quickly, and “cigar guy tiger woods” was the #5 search term in the United States on October 5th.

Identity revealed

According the Daily Mail, the smiling cigar guy turned out to be 30-year-old Londoner and investment analyst Rupesh Shingadia.

He confirmed the reason behind the wig, the cigar and the fake mustache :
Rupesh said his costume was a ‘tribute’ to Spanish golfer Miguel Angel Jimenez.

‘I wanted to do something to show my support for the European team and I thought of Miguel. These days sportsmen have become devoid of character. But Miguel does his own thing and I love the way he walks around the course with a cigar clamped between his teeth.’
He also commented on the photoshop trend, noting that he is well aware of his Internet fame :
‘I got up and looked at it online, thought it was a bit funny – and then went back to bed.’ Over the next few days the Cigar Guy phenomenon took off in earnest on the internet. ‘I was absolutely astonished,’ he said. ‘It was incredible. I found it funny but unsettling’

He had become an online icon, Photoshopped into pictures of dramatic moments from history.

‘My favourite is me with The Simpsons,’ said Rupesh. ’It’s difficult to understand the situation because it has just been thrust upon me. Some people spend years craving this kind of attention but to me it happened by accident. It’s just bizarre.

‘But I’m still expecting to go to work next week. I’m not expecting it to change my life in the long term.’
Perhaps the initial mystery of not knowing who this man was, or why he was there was critical for the meme’s birth and subsequent livelihood.


Article source: knowyourmeme.com



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