The 'Distracted Boyfriend' meme, also known as 'Man Looking at Other Woman', features a stock photo where a man, accompanied by his presumably romantic partner, is caught mid-gaze at another woman passing by. The man's partner looks at him disapprovingly, clearly upset with his wandering eyes. This format is widely used for object labeling to express preference or distraction between comparable choices or scenarios.
The original image of the 'Distracted Boyfriend' meme was captured by photographer Antonio Guillem and uploaded to the stock photo database iStock on November 1st, 2015 under the title 'Disloyal man with his girlfriend looking at another girl' (iStock). The meme gained popularity through a captioned version that surfaced in a Turkish Facebook group, though the exact date of this adaptation is unclear. The concept further spread on January 30th, 2017, when the Facebook page 'Prog Düşmanlarına Verilen Müthiş Cevaplar' (Facebook) published a version labeling the characters as Phil Collins favoring pop music over prog music. This creative adaptation was reportedly inspired by an earlier meme from the political meme page 'Siyasettin', which also featured the 'Distracted Boyfriend' image on the same date.[1]
Origin: 2017