You're a Good Kid Franklin

About

You're a Good Kid Franklin is an exploitable reaction image showing Ned Luke, the voice actor for the character Michael in Grand Theft Auto V, taking a shirtless mirror selfie that's been edited into a GTA V text message screen displaying a text to Franklin reading, "You're a good kid Franklin." The photograph was originally posted by Luke in January 2021 to announce that he was recovering from COVID Pneumonia, with the meme, which edits the sweatpants off Luke, first being posted to iFunny in April of that year. The meme gained viral spread over the following years and inspired photoshops and redraws. In June 2024, Luke responded negatively to an X / Twitter user who reposted the meme.

Origin

On January 16th, 2021, voice actor Ned Luke posted a selfie taken from a hospital bed to Instagram,^[1] announcing that he had COVID Pneumonia, garnering over 210,000 likes in three years. On January 18th, he posted a now-deleted shirtless mirror selfie announcing that he was recovering. The post was reposted to the /r/GTA^[2] and /r/GrandTheftAutoV^[3] subreddits on the 18th and 19th, garnering over 1,000 upvotes each in three years (shown below).

On February 1st, 2021, iFunny^[4] user YourFather_ posted a meme in which the shirtless selfie of Luke has been edited onto the cellphone screen from GTA V, portrayed as a text from Michael to Franklin reading, "You're a good kid, Franklin," garnering around seven smiles in three years (shown below, left).

On April 22nd, iFunny^[5] user IFuckGoblins posted a more expanded version of the meme in which the photo has been photoshopped to appear as if Luke is wearing no pants, garnering over 8,500 smiles in three years (shown below, right).

Spread

The meme gained viral spread over the following years. On November 11th, 2021, it was posted to Reddit's /r/GTAV,^[6] garnering over 1,300 upvotes in three years. On March 24th, 2023, it was then reposted to /r/GTAV,^[7] garnering over 1,500 upvotes in a year.

That year, the meme started to inspire new variants. On September 20th, 2023, a Friday Night Funkin' redraw of the meme was posted to Newgrounds,^[8] garnering over 250 views in a year.

On January 25th, 2024, the /r/youreagoodkidfranklin^[9] subreddit launched, gaining around 200 members in six months and inspiring numerous photoshops and memes referencing the original (examples shown below). On January 26th, a collection of new versions of the meme was posted to /r/GTA6_NEW,^[10] garnering over 180 upvotes in six months.

Ned Luke's Response to the Meme

On June 28th, 2024, X^[11] user @LorshZontek posted a screenshot of a now-deleted repost of the original meme by X user @DarkFunk1988, which garnered over 60,000 likes before it was deleted, writing, "I did not expect him to see the You're a good kid Franklin meme and respond to it on the timeline lmao."

The screenshot includes a comment by Ned Luke in which he scolds the user for posting the meme, writing, "Hey asshole you realize that's a doctored photo of when I was in the hospital with covid right? Some other asshole photoshopped my sweat pants off. You're an absolute douchebag posting that shit." The post gained over 7,200 likes in four days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References