The famous “closed fist” meme from the animated TV series “Arthur” turns 25, and we have two big celebrities to thank for the popularity of this famous image.
The meme began as a moment in a Season 4 episode of the PBS children’s show. case, “Arthur’s Big Hit,” It aired in the US on October 4, 1999 and focused on teaching children why they should not try to solve their problems with violence.
In one part of the show, Arthur becomes frustrated with his younger sister, DW, when she drops a model plane she built out of the window, thinking it would fly. After it gets damaged, she blames him, saying that he should have built it better.
Meanwhile, Arthur is stewing, remembering all the times he told his sister not to touch the plane. Then he clenches his fist and hits her.
The image of Arthur’s clenched fist began to gain popularity online in 2016In February 2017, a person on Twitter (now X) posted together Arthur and singer John Legend, 45, wrote, “John Legend looks like Arthur Loki.”
Just days later, Legend’s wife, Chrissy Teigen, 38, said. “John when you tell him he looks like Arthur,” the model tweeted along with an “Arthur” clenched fist meme. Teigen’s post has been removed.
No reference to the legend found. “I hadn’t even heard of this Arthur character until now,” the singer replied On Teigen’s tweet. “Was he around when I was a kid?”
The moment took the meme to new heights of masculinity and solidified Teigen and Legend’s connection to Arthur and his clenched fists.
In April 2018, the pair starred A Google Duo ad Where Legend tries on a few different outfits and asks Teigen for fashion advice over a video call. After getting the model’s compliments on one outfit after another, Legend finally lands on a white button-up shirt and yellow sweater — in other words, Arthur’s signature look.
“Arthur!” After seeing Legend, Teigen started screaming in the video. “Who’s Arthur?” The legend replied.
The Grammy winner also notably recreated the clenched fist meme.
From there, the couple continued to lie. Teigen posted a photo in June 2018 on Instagram His daughter Luna holds an Arthur stuffed animal. “Luna and daddy,” she captioned the photo.
Writing in the comments, the model added, “This is my childhood Arthur doll. My mother has kept it to herself for so long. Maybe I’ve been attracted to Arthur my whole life and now I find my real life human.
Legend commented, “Wow.”
Then “Ordinary People” singer posted my own photo Writing about Luna and Arthur (with their grandfather), “Luna and Grandpa (and a stuffed animal whose name we won’t say).”
Months later, Legend appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” And asked about Arthur. He quipped, “One day I’ll cover that theme song.” ,[Chrissy] Always keeps trolling me. He is my number one troll on Twitter.
animated tv series Its final episode, which launched millions of memes, aired in February 2022. Based on the books by Mark Brown, “Arthur” premiered on October 10, 1996 and ran for 25 seasonsMaking it the longest-running animated children’s show in America.
Brown talked about how the show was able to run for so many years during an interview People In 2019. “When we started Arthur 22 years ago, the agenda we started with was to get children to read,” he said. “And it worked!”
“So every year, the writers and producers sit down to decide what kind of subject matter we want to tackle. After 22 years you think, ‘We’ve done it all!’ Yet, here was another chance!” The author continued. “It still excites me that we can come up with stories that will be interesting and useful to children.”
