- I accidentally ever became a meme
and this is that story.
My name is Kyle Craven
but you might know me as Bad Luck Brian.
So this all started in 2007.
I was in high school and let's just say
I wasn't a great student.
I was more interested in goofing off
and being a class clown.
My friend Ian and I loved to do pranks.
For like Cinco de Mayo we'd volunteer
to bring in the pinata
but we'd fill the pinata full of vegetables
instead of candy.
The day was so pissed.
(laughs).
My teacher was pissed, everyone was pissed.
One thing I loved though was picture day.
It was an opportunity for me to shine.
Freshman year you know, I had a grin on my face picture,
nothing too special but my sophomore year
I thought I'd up my game a little bit.
And actually there are two photos
so it looks like twins, Kyle Cravens in the class.
So my junior year I was really prepping myself
trying to get a really good picture.
So I went down to the local thrift store,
got a nice sweater vest.
As I'm in line waiting to get my picture taken
me and my buddies are goofing off.
We get up there a lady asked you know,
what backdrop do I want?
And I told her purple.
She was a little surprised.
As I sit down I'm rubbing my eyes, rubbing my eyes,
rubbing my eyes, making them really puffy.
And she goes, okay let's smile
and I gave her that you know, like nice grin
and she took a picture,
laughed a little bit and said, thank you.
It wasn't for a few weeks after that
that I got my actual picture back.
When I first got the picture, I thought it was perfect.
Me and my buddies all were crying, laughing in class
looking at it.
Not more than five minutes after getting my picture
did I get a call down to the principal's office,
took me inside and said that tomorrow's on retakes
and she expected me to be there
'cause she's not gonna put that photo
in her yearbook.
So with retakes what you do is
you have to turn back in the original photo.
So prior to doing that I scanned it, copied it,
put on my computer
and actually made it as my Facebook profile picture.
Me and my buddy who I mentioned earlier
who I liked to do pranks with in college
he went to the West coast, I was still on the East coast
and he would call me in the middle of the night
and leave me voicemails four in the morning
when I was sleeping.
They were very interesting and odd.
They would range from you know, I miss you,
why'd you leave me?
911 was an inside job
or like how'd they fit all those animals in that Noah's Ark?
You know, how'd that even work?
So around 2012 Ian very obsessed with making memes.
He would use a memegenerator.com,
post them to the subreddit AdviceAnimals.
He would do 50 at a time.
Usually none of them stuck.
That was really until one night at 4:00 AM
I got a voicemail.
He simply said hey, not a big deal
but I made you internet famous.
So since he usually sends me voicemails
that make no sense I thought nothing of it.
I was very, very wrong.
Within two weeks it was all over the internet.
Reddit, Facebook, Instagram.
So this happened the last semester of college.
People would recognize me in class,
as I was walking around campus,
always got asked to do pictures.
I thought it was hilarious.
Even my buddies were calling each other laughing.
I didn't inform my family.
I kind of let it go 'cause I thought it would die
like most means die.
You know, they pick up for a week or two
and then they slowly dissipate
but this really kept on growing
and organically growing and growing and growing.
So my mom was at school and she's a middle school teacher
and somebody was walking around a kid
was walking around with a Bad luck Brian T-shirt.
And she asked who's that on your shirt?
He goes it's Bad Luck Brian.
Everybody knew me as Bad Luck Brian.
She goes, well, you know, where'd you get that?
He goes, well, I got it at the mall, Hot Topic.
Eventually I had to tell them,
hey there's a picture of me on the internet
and immediately my parents were cautious.
Let's say it probably wasn't for the best
that I had a picture of myself out there that's a meme.
So one of the first things we did was talk to an IP lawyer
to keep control of it 'cause we'd seen from other memes
how it can really get out of control.
So I have T-shirts that were sold in Walmart,
Hot Topic, Targets, 20 plus board games
I'm in a little doll, a book did a commercial for Volkswagen
for the super bowl commercial for McDonald's,
I was on a skateboard,
I am in a museum in Switzerland, different fans.
They always said the same thing
you know, it was always like oh, I feel so bad for you.
It's terrible that somebody took your photo
and put it out there and you know, that's bad luck,
you know, just fits the meme perfectly.
But in real life I actually have great luck.
I went sweepstakes all the time
and I've won an Xbox PSP, I always win at bingo,
scratch off tickets.
So being internet famous is great
because 90% of the time don't recognize you in public
and you can have a normal life.
You know, once in a while I'll be at triple A
and somebody will give me that look
and I'll just go look, yap, and just keep on walking.
But you also do get the perks of being famous
where get to do all these crazy things.
So met Snoop Dog that's where again
I've been to the Playboy Mansion,
met countless other Internet's memes.
Overly Attached Girlfriend reached out to me
we did a video together and one of her videos
and a few other projects and it was great
and she's a blast.
Looking back on it I don't have any regrets.
You know, I always looked at it as a blessing
and a fun roller coaster ride we've been riding.
I've had a extremely charmed life
and I am the luckiest guy I know.
(soft music)