Original Coverage & Source Attribution: sg.news.yahoo.com
Some actors become memes because of an iconic scene or memorable line, but American actor Skyler Gisondo managed to do it by simply smiling for the camera over a decade ago.
A seemingly ordinary press photo of the actor has spent years circulating online alongside increasingly specific captions about the type of “white guy” (or kid) he looks like.
The image dates back to Gisondo’s press tour for the 2015 comedy film Vacation, although it took years for the internet to recognize its meme potential. A viral 2022 tweet helped bring the smiling red-carpet photo into wider circulation, inspiring reposts and new captions across social media in recent years.
Many of the memes imagine Gisondo as fitting oddly specific “white guy” archetypes, with one of the earliest and most recognizable examples claiming he “looks like he can do a crazy trick on the trampoline.”
The format saw a larger resurgence in 2023 as additional photos of the actor joined the meme, followed by yet another revival more recently in late September and early October 2026.
So, why has Skyler Gisondo’s smile become such a persistent source of memes, and where did the whole thing start? Here’s how the red carpet photo from 2015 became the “Skyler Gisondo Smiling” meme years later.
Where Does The Meme Of Skyler Gisondo Come From?
The photo of actor Skyler Gisondo primarily used in the meme originally comes from his press tour for the 2015 comedy movie Vacation, which was captured alongside fellow actress Elizabeth Gillies when the film premiered at Regency Village Theatre on July 27th, 2015, in Westwood, California.
Several other photographs of Gisondo smiling against the blue backdrop while wearing a grey suit and black tie were also captured that day, which similarly saw use in memes in the 2020s.
Though the images were sporadically reposted and joked about online in the following years, the image didn’t become a notable meme until late February 2022, when Twitter / X user @dogmatic_shorty posted the photo with the caption, “he looks like he can do a crazy trick on the trampoline.”
The tweet received roughly 113,800 likes in just a year and helped establish Gisondo’s smiling photo as a meme template, sparking a meme trend using it as the initial meme was widely reposted on social media.
How Did The Skyler Gisondo Meme Spread?
The February 2022 tweet joking about him doing tricks on a trampoline was quickly reposted on Instagram and Tumblr in early 2022, expanding the image’s circulation beyond Twitter as it became a caption format.
Gisondo himself also acknowledged the meme back then after seeing reposts of the tweet, sharing @dogmatic_shorty’s post to his Instagram Story with the messages, “Means a lot” and “Just feeling really seen right now.”
Screenshots of Gisondo’s Instagram Stories were later posted by Tumblr user milfchellepfeiffer on February 26th, 2022, receiving roughly 71,400 notes in one year.
Despite the initial viral moment taking place in 2022, memes featuring Gisondo became much more common in early 2023 as the format began trending online even further.
Twitter user @zachraffio helped spark the resurgence on March 9th, 2023, with a post stating, “He had a quiet 2022. Too quiet. What is he planning,” which received about 49,100 likes in four months.
On April 14th, 2023, Twitter user @savbrads quote retweeted a post about “a relatively unknown male in his 30s” who was reportedly taking the role of James Bond in an upcoming film. The quote retweet used an image of Gisondo and received roughly 45,800 likes in three months.
By mid-2023, tweets and memes featuring Gisondo had become increasingly common, with a second photo of the actor eventually becoming part of the meme’s visual repertoire.
The second image, which came from Gisondo’s IMDb page, had appeared in viral tweets as early as August 2022 before later being incorporated into meme edits.
One variation eventually removed Gisondo’s smile from the photo. This “unhappy” version was posted by Twitter user @brokebackstan on July 16th, 2023, garnering roughly 60 likes since then.
Now, three years after the last major resurgence of the meme, Skyler Gisondo’s grinning moment is once again trending online as it sees usage in countless variants starting in late September 2026.
This latest revival of the format was sparked on September 30th, 2026, when Twitter user @BYUsupersoaker shared a version joking that Gisondo was probably super hyper during recess in school, racking up more than 743,000 views and 68,000 likes as the meme kicked off yet again.
Heading into early October, Twitter user @dicktective shared a meme using the photo alongside the caption, “I can picture him so clearly with blue stained teeth and lips from having slammed back an ICEE,” which received nearly 100,000 views and 9,000 likes in five days.
Once again, Gisondo himself took notice of the memes using his image and commented on a viral repost from a notable Instagram meme page, joking that he doesn’t have a peanut allergy but feels “really seen here.”
Additionally, Gisondo even changed his profile picture to the photograph commonly used in his meme.
Gisondo also told Vanity Fair in an interview about his role in Primetime that he has favorite examples of the meme, stating:
“My favorite one was, ‘This guy looks like he could do a crazy trick on the trampoline’ or something. As an actor, the dream is to make stuff that means something to people, that they care about and that resonates.
To see that reflected in this way, whether it’s in memes or just in any kind of positive sentiment, it’s so sweet and fulfilling.”
What Are Some More ‘Skyler Gisondo Smiling’ Memes?
For the full history of the Skyler Gisondo Smiling meme, be sure to check out Know Your Meme’s encyclopedia entry.
