Distracted Boyfriend
The Distracted Boyfriend meme is a captioned stock photo: a man turns to check out another woman while his partner stares at him in disbelief. Photographer Antonio Guillem posted the source photo to iStock on November 1, 2015, and the first documented captioned versions appeared on January 30, 2017 in Turkish Facebook meme groups. The joke lives entirely in the labels — one character stands for what you have, the other for what tempts you.
Names & aliases
What’s it called?
One umbrella name, many instance formats — here is how the names nest.
-
UmbrellaObject labeling memes
The stock photo of a man checking out another woman while his partner stares at him
-
InstanceMan Looking at Other Woman
KYM entry alias: 'also known as Man Looking at Other Woman.'
-
InstanceDisloyal man with his girlfriend looking at another girl
The photo's original iStock title, per KYM.
-
InstanceGuy looking at girl meme
Common descriptive phrasing used in community name-finding threads (社区采集求名帖 pattern).
Usage
How to use it
Tone
judgmental / relatable.
Where it lands
Labeling the wandering man as a temptation (new hobby, second monitor, bad idea) and the glaring partner as the responsible priority being ignored.
How it evolved
Source photo posted to iStock November 1, 2015 (photographer Antonio Guillem); earliest documented captioned versions January 30, 2017 in Turkish Facebook meme groups.
Easy to get wrong
The meaning lives entirely in the labels, not the faces — swap labels carelessly and the meme inverts. The photo is a staged stock image from a whole series with the same models (they also appear in other scenarios), so treat any 'story' built on it as fiction.
Origin
Origin & timeline
- 2017Source photo posted to iStock November 1, 2015 (photographer Antonio Guillem); earliest documented captioned versions January 30, 2017 in Turkish Facebook meme groups — iStock for the photo; Turkish Facebook pages (Prog Düşmanlarına Verilen Müthiş Cevaplar, inspired by Siyasettin) for the first captions
- 2015November 1, 2015: photographer Antonio Guillem uploads the shot to iStock as 'Disloyal man with his girlfriend looking at another girl' (KYM).
- 2017January 30, 2017: Turkish Facebook meme pages post the first documented captions — one casts the man as Phil Collins turning from pop music to prog rock (KYM).
- 2017February 23, 2017: Instagram user @_dekhbai_'s 'Tag That Friend' version gains 28,500+ likes in seven months; August 19, 2017: a socialism/capitalism labeling goes viral on Twitter (KYM).
- 2017August 21, 2017: the solar-eclipse version hits r/me_irl (31,200+ points in 24 hours) and launches the English-language explosion; March 2018: Slate cites it as a driver of the whole object-labeling trend (KYM).
- 2017August 22, 2017: a Tumblr compilation reveals the photo is part of a larger stock series with the same actors; December 29, 2022: Rainbolt geolocates the shoot to Carrer Nou 31 in Girona, Spain (533,000+ likes in three weeks) (KYM).
Verifiable sources
Templates
Make your own
Open the Distracted Boyfriend generator — imgflip↗We link out to generators and blank templates; meme images are never rehosted on memefern.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is the Distracted Boyfriend meme?
An object-labeling meme from a stock photo: a man turns to check out a woman walking past while his partner stares at him in disbelief. Label the three people and you have a joke about temptation versus loyalty. KYM also lists it as 'Man Looking at Other Woman.'
Where is the Distracted Boyfriend photo from?
It's a staged stock photo by Spanish photographer Antonio Guillem, posted to iStock on November 1, 2015 under the title 'Disloyal man with his girlfriend looking at another girl' (KYM).
Who took the Distracted Boyfriend photo?
Antonio Guillem, a Spanish photographer shooting stock in Catalonia. In December 2022, geo-guesser Rainbolt located the exact spot: Carrer Nou 31 in Girona, Spain — a video that gained 533,000+ likes in three weeks (KYM).
When did the Distracted Boyfriend meme start?
The first documented captioned versions appeared January 30, 2017 in Turkish Facebook meme groups. It went global in August 2017 after a solar-eclipse version passed 31,200 points on r/me_irl in 24 hours (KYM).
Are there more photos of the Distracted Boyfriend models?
Yes — the same three models appear in a whole stock photo series together. A Tumblr compilation of the series was posted on August 22, 2017, shortly after the meme blew up (KYM).
Why was Distracted Boyfriend such a big meme?
Slate (March 2018) credited it as one of the most influential memes in the late-2010s object-labeling trend: three clear roles (temptation, tempted, abandoned priority) map onto almost any situation (KYM).