Kyle Craven (born August 10, 1989), commonly known by his Internet nickname "Bad Luck Brian", is an American

Internet celebrity An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of socia ...

known for his ubiquitous photo posted on

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news news aggregator, aggregation, Review site#Rating site, content rating, and Internet forum, discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") subm ...

in 2012, which quickly became a popular

Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

. Bad Luck Brian is an

image macro An image macro is a piece of digital media featuring a picture, or artwork, with some form of text superimposed. The text frequently appears at the top and bottom of the image. Image macros are one of the most common forms of internet memes, and ...

style of meme. His captions describe a variety of unlucky, embarrassing and tragic events.

Meme

Origin

On January 23, 2012, at 2:15 UTC, Ian Davies uploaded a photo to

of his friend Kyle Craven. Craven and Davies both attended

Archbishop Hoban High School Archbishop Hoban High School is a Catholic college-preparatory school in Akron, Ohio. It is sponsored by the Catholic religious order Brothers of Holy Cross. History In the early 1950s, Archbishop Edward F. Hoban invited the Brothers of Holy Cros ...

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...

. The photo which became Bad Luck Brian was originally taken for the high school's 2005-06 yearbook. Craven stated that he rubbed his face with a sweater to redden it and donned a goofy smile. The high school principal at the time had him retake the photo, but Craven and Davies had already scanned and saved the original picture. The photo quickly became popular on the image board

4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...

, and social media networks like

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, depicting "a guy who can't catch a break ..a symbol for a stroke of hilarious bad luck".

Notable depictions

In 2013, Bad Luck Brian (depicted by Craven himself) featured in a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

video sketch alongside fellow meme

Overly Attached Girlfriend Overly Attached Girlfriend (OAG) is a fictional character and an Internet meme originating in a YouTube video published on June 6, 2012. The character was created by Laina Morris (born June 22, 1991). The video was a submission to a contest he ...

, where the two characters go on a date. This collaboration prompted Craven to create his own Bad Luck Brian Youtube channel and accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Bad Luck Brian was turned into T-shirts, stuffed animals and novelty items sold by

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

and

Hot Topic Hot Topic, Inc. (stylized as HOT TOPIC) is an American retail chain specializing in counterculture-related clothing and accessories, as well as licensed music. The stores are aimed towards an audience interested in rock music and video gaming, ...

. He starred in ad campaigns for companies like

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post ...

. In October 2018, Craven did a series of advertisements for

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold ...

featuring the Bad Luck Brian character, which were featured on

, and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

. Including licensing deals and merchandise, Craven estimates he made $20,000 within three years since 2015. In March 2021, Craven sold a Bad Luck Brian

non-fungible token A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain, and that is used to certify authenticity and ownership. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the ...

(NFT) for around $36,000.

Personal life

A Redditor claiming to be Bad Luck Brian attempted to do an AMA thread in the "Ask Me Anything" subreddit on April 11, 2012, but the thread was removed. Craven returned to a different Advice Animals subreddit on May 8, 2012 with an AMA thread. Craven is the chief operating officer at his father's church construction company.

References

External links

* {{Authority control American Internet celebrities 1989 births People from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio Internet memes introduced in 2012 Living people Kent State University alumni People notable for being the subject of a specific photograph 2010s photographs Color photographs