Steve Buscemeyes
About
Steve Buscemeyes is a photoshop meme featuring images of people, typically celebrities, with American actor Steve Buscemi's characteristic eyes substituted for their own.
Origin
On April 2st, 2011, the Internet humor website Something Awful posted a Photoshop Friday[1] contest titled "Celebrity Match Game", which featured a photo of Steve Buscemi combined with the pop star Justin Bieber.
Spread
On April 7th, 2011, the Something Awful photo was submitted in a post to the /r/funny[2] subreddit titled "Justin Bieber with Steve Buscemi Eyes", which received 11,063 up votes and 530 comments prior to being archived. On April 8th, the Tumblr blog "Chicks With Steve Buscemeyes"[3] was launched, which highlighted edited images of female celebrities with Steve Buscemi's eyes. The following day, BuzzFeed[4] former editor Chris Menning posted a compilation of images sourced from the Tumblr blog. On April 11th, the Tumblr blog was highlighted by CNN[14] and compilations of notable examples were posted on Paste Magazine[15], Urlesque[9] and Funny or Die.[16] On April 12th, YouTuber TexPorneau uploaded a video titled "Buscemi Eyes", which featured close-ups of several notable examples from the series.
On the same day, the Internet humor blog The Chive[12] published a post titled "Celebs with Steve Buscemi's eyes: Embrace the horror", containing 30 notable examples from the series. On April 16th, 2011, the artist Alex Pardee published a printable Steve Buscemeyes mask (shown below, left) on his personal blog[6], which was subsequently featured on BoingBoing[7], BuzzFeed[8] and The Daily What.[13]
On May 27th, 2012, Redditor AkiraDeathStar published a post titled “Post your best ‘Buscemi Eyes’. Just finished this one”[11], which included a Buscemeyes version of actress Zoey Deschanel (shown above, right). Within two months, the post received over 620 up votes and 135 comments, as well as generating many original Buscemeyes examples in the comments.
Various Examples
Elijah Wood Face
On March 10th, 2012, Redditor bryciclepete submitted a post titled "Remember Steve Buscemi eyes, well how about Elijah Wood face?", which featured an edited photo of Steve Buscemi with the nose and mouth of actor Elijah Wood. Within five months, the post received over 6,200 up votes and 155 comments.
The Actor
Steve Buscemi is an American actor from Brooklyn, New York, who is known for his performances in The Big Lebowski, Ghost World, Fargo and in the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire. According to Wikipedia[5], his face was badly scarred while aiding a fellow actor in a bar fight, which led to his characteristic facial appearance.
Derivatives
In February of 2012, a photograph of Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie wearing a strapless black dress with a split revealing her leg inspired that photoshop meme Angelina Jolie's Leg, in which the exposed limb was superimposed on to various other base images.
Search Interest
Search query volume for the keywords "Steve Buscemeyes" rose significantly in April of 2011, the same month the Reddit thread and Tumblr blog were created.
External References
[1] Something Awful – Celebrity Match Game
[2] Reddit – Justin Bieber with Steve Buscemi Eyes
[3] Tumblr – Chicks With Steve Buscemeyes
[4] BuzzFeed – Chicks With Steve Buscemeyes
[5] Wikipedia – Steve Buscemi
[6] Eyes Suck Ink – Free Home Version of Steve Buscemeyes
[7] BoingBoing – Steve Buscemi's Eyes the printable mask
[8] BuzzFeed – DIY Steve Buscemi Eyes
[9] Urlesque – Finally, Chicks With Steve Buscemi Eyes Exists
[10] Reddit – Remember Steve Buscemi eyes, well how about Elijah Wood face?
[11] Reddit – Post your best Buscemi eyes Just finished this one.
[12] The Chive – Celebs with Steve Buscemi's eyes
[13] The Daily What – DIY of the Day
[14] CNN – Have you seen 'Chicks with Steve Buscemeyes'?
[15] Paste Magazine – Our Favorite Chicks With Steve Buscemeyes
[16] Funny or Die – 10 Chicks with Steve Buscemi Eyes
