Man Who Made History In ‘Blinking Guy’ Meme Using His Fame To ‘Pay It Forward’

Man Who Made History In ‘Blinking Guy’ Meme Using His Fame To ‘Pay It Forward’

Not all heroes wear capes, some, well, blink confusedly.

That’s been the story to some degree of the last 12 years of Drew Scanlon, a man who would come to be known as “Blinking Guy,” but who used that fame to raise money for charitable causes.

Scanlon’s life would change forever by a face he made on a video game review livestream in 2013, not knowing it would come to anything, not least because he had nothing to do with it.

“A lot of times it doesn’t feel like me, because I didn’t really have anything to do with it, besides the fact that it’s my face.”

He has no idea how it’s become so popular—so popular that it was ranked by Vox as the 11th best internet meme of all time.

Typically, blinking guy is the go-to meme for conveying quiet irritation or the hearing of a surprise that wasn’t necessarily something you’d wanted to hear.

As it turns out, he was on the live stream when he heard exactly that—a profane joke that he declined to share to CTV News who reported on how he uses his fame to “pay it forward.”

Every year, Scanlon participates in an annual bike race 120 miles from San Francisco to Napa to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. His friend Katie and her mother both have MS, and so every year since 2016, he goes on his rarely-used Blinking Guy social media accounts and posts a link to the society’s his race donation page.

That link? blinkingguy.com

“I’ve just been floored by the response,” he said.

His Blinking Guy fame has helped him raise an incredible $300,000 for MS research as well as programs and services that ensure people affected by MS can live their best lives.