In 2009, Michael Jordan, one of the greatest athletes in the history of sports, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. During his speech, Jordan cried, and the Internet was never the same.
It took a few years, but over the last several months the meme known as Crying Jordan has exploded in popularity, taking Twitter by storm. The concept is simple: Whenever anything bad happens to a person, you Photoshop Jordan’s crying head on their face.
Cam Newton completes less than half of his pass attempts in the Super Bowl? There’s Crying Jordans for that. Head coach Chip Kelly gets fired by the Philadelphia Eagles? There’s Crying Jordans for that. Presidential candidate Marco Rubio gets beaten badly by Donald Trump in his home state of Florida and has to drop out of the Republican Primary? You guessed it, go looking on Google, and you’ll find Crying Jordans for that too.
For something that seems so incredibly simple, people are constantly inventing new and creative ways to use the meme.
In Super Bowl 50, Carolina Panthers kicker Graham Gano missed a field goal in which the ball bounced off the side of the upright, and there’s an animated gif that has transformed the football into one big spinning Jordan head.
“Fun of crying MJ is finding new and creative ways to say the same thing. Unlike people who just say they hate crying MJ the same every time,†Twitter user @mdotbrown tweeted Monday night.
As popular as Crying Jordan is, the meme does have its detractors, and Twitter was overloaded Monday night with fans and haters alike, as Jordan’s alma mater, the North Carolina Tarheels, were defeated by Villanova on a thrilling buzzer-beating three-pointer for the NCAA Championship.
Michael Jordan was in attendance for the game and was frequently shown on the television cameras, giving Photoshoppers dozens of chances to plaster the teary Jordan face on MJ himself, and Twitter users took full advantage of the opportunity.
There was such a mass of memes that the aftermath lingered into Tuesday morning, when multiple anti-Crying Jordan articles were published, including one on USA Today’s For The Win blog titled “It’s time to retire the overused crying Jordan meme.â€
In the article, author Charlotte Wilder said it’s time to put an end to the jokes.
“So where do we go from here? Nowhere. Because once you make a meme so meta that it collapses in on itself like a black hole of internet sadness, there is no where else you can go,†Wilder wrote. “It was funny for a while, but after last night, we have officially reached peak crying Jordan.â€
Wilder continued, “It’s also annoying and played-out, and I’m sick of it.†Naturally, when Wilder shared the story on her Twitter account, her mentions were lit ablaze with images of Jordan’s crying head on top of her own body.
As Twitter user @KevinMcGannon explained: “What makes Crying Jordan so great is that when anyone complains about it, you just put Crying Jordan on that person’s face.â€
This is the nature of Crying Jordan. On Twitter you have two options: You accept the meme and become a hero, or you complain long enough to see yourself become the Jordan.
Bleacher Report NBA reporter Chris Palmer also spoke out against the meme, tweeting, “Nobody who saw Michael Jordan play would ever do an MJ Crying Meme. That’s the difference between me and you,†and “They done made a dozen MJ memes about me. That’s cool. Can’t let my hero be reduced to a joke. I know it’s not that serious. Still I fight.â€
Palmer’s second tweet is incredibly ironic because in it, he includes the single best argument in favor of Crying Jordan: It’s not serious. Twitter is a platform built for rapid reactions and jokes, and Crying Jordan is its magnum opus. No sane person’s opinion of Michael Jordan is lowered because he’s an Internet joke now. It is harmless.
According to a poll of 50 people conducted by The Daily Helmsman, 42 percent of voters said they love the Crying Jordan meme, while 50 percent say it’s gotten stale. Only eight percent said they hate the meme.
It makes sense it’s gotten stale to some people. It’s been going strong for about a year now, but if it wasn’t still funny to a lot of people, the Photoshops wouldn’t still be getting hundreds or sometimes even thousands of retweets. If anything, the meme is growing even stronger, with Monday night’s National Championship game being perhaps the most Crying Jordaned event yet.
A day in the future will surely come when the meme finally dies, but at least for now, that day doesn’t appear to be any time soon.
Michael Jordan is considered by most to be the greatest basketball player of all-time, and if the trend keeps up, he might just go down in history as the greatest meme as well. Long live Crying Jordan.
'Crying Jordan' has grown in popularity over the last year or so on social media. The 'Crying Jordan' originated from Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan's 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame speech.Â
