Skip to content
Search AI Powered
Human content, AI powered search.

Latest Stories

Kid From The 'Popeyes Kid' Meme Is All Grown Up—And He Just Signed A Deal With The Food Chain

Dieunerst Collin as a child; Collin currently
@FOS/Twitter

Dieunerst Collin, now a freshman outside linebacker at Lake Erie College, was offered a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal after becoming one of the most recognizable memes as a child.

Joanna Edwards
By Joanna EdwardsJan 12, 2023
Joanna Edwards
Joanna Edwards wears many hats: student, data-wrangler and LGBTQ+ activist. Her main passion is writing, followed shortly by percussion, mediocre watercolor painting and scuba diving. A New Englander currently displaced to the South, she waits patiently for winter and its more reasonable weather.
See Full Bio

Ah, Vine, how we miss you.

The now-defunct platform spawned a whole genre of short videos, but also made for prime meme fodder creating some of the more widely used reaction gifs of the last decade.

The kid in one of the more popular ones, Dieunerst Collin, has grown up and spun childhood meme straw into football sponsorship gold.

As a refresher, this is the meme GIF:

Popeyes kid GIFGiphy

That kid?

He's now a freshman offensive lineman at a Division-II college.

Jim Weber (@JimMWebter/Twitter) figured this out and started a social media campaign to get Popeyes to sign Collin to a NIL deal—the new type of sponsorship college athletes can get after recent NCAA rules changes.

Collin picked the campaign up quickly after it had started.

"I JUST WANNA TALK" Collin said in an Instagram post he later reposted to Twitter.

The Popeyes social media team responded on Twitter.

Collin held an Instagram live, thanking people for the campaign that got him the deal.

He said of all the support he received:

"I didn't know the internet was like that."

Other social media teams took a moment to comment, or blatantly try to recruit Collin.


Commenting on the possibilities of the NIL sponsorship, someone thought of a more innovate option than the usual cash payment.

Others were just reminded of the passage of time.


The decision to sign Collin already has worked out for Popeyes as many commenters said they were going to add a Popeyes' trip to their food plans.


Really what we learned here is sometimes, memes can really pay off.

Can't wait for the next meme-to-sponsorship deal to happen, now that companies have realized this is possible.

Latest News

Screenshot of Marjorie Taylor Greene; Donald Trump
2024 Election

MTG Melts Down In Bonkers Rant Demanding Senate Republicans 'Say Yes Sir' To Trump's Cabinet Picks

More from Trending

A woman counting a large pile of one dollar bills
focus photography of person counting dollar banknotes
Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

People Imagine The Most Unhinged Things They'd Do If They Were Uber Wealthy

How many people dream of winning the lotto, and then immediately dream of how they will spend their millions, if not billions, of dollars?

Of course, common ideas that pop into people's heads should they become astonishingly wealthy are putting a swimming pool in their backyard, buying a bigger house, and maybe even buying multiple houses.

Keep ReadingShow less
Karoline Leavitt; Donald Trump
Fox News

Trump Aide Dragged For Bonkers Claim About Trump's Support For 'A Free Press'

Right-wingers lying and spouting face-palming sound bytes continue to increase even before President-elect Donald Trump moves into the White House in January, reinforcing the mayhem to come full speed ahead in 2025.

The latest MAGA cheerleader is Karoline Leavitt, who was Trump's national press secretary for his 2024 presidential campaign. She will be the youngest White House press secretary in US history when Trump returns for his second non-consecutive term in the Oval Office.

Keep ReadingShow less
Madonna
Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Live Nation

Madonna Just Asked If Her Life Story Should Be A TV Series Or A Movie—And Fans Have Thoughts

Long-time "Queen of Pop" Madonna has a lot of fans, especially among Gen-X and Millennials, and anyone well-versed in pop music knows how extensive and varied her career has been.

Now 66, the singer has decided to tell her story, but rather than add to the overflowing genre of celebrity memoirs, she wants her story portrayed on film.

Keep ReadingShow less
Daily Mail headquarters; Man holding sandwich
Steve Parsons/PA Images via Getty Images, Manuel Lopez/GettyImages

Tabloid Dragged After Claiming Gen Z Has Ruined Sandwiches With 'Fancy Woke Fillings'

British publication The Daily Mail was scorched for an article claiming Gen Z was "waging a war" on traditional sandwiches by replacing classic ingredients with more "woke" fillings.

The tabloid reported that Allinson's, a UK-based bread company, launched its Great British Sandwich Study and polled British people of all ages on their sandwich preferences.

Keep ReadingShow less
Chris Martin, concertgoer making heart hands
John Nacion/FilmMagic/GettyImages, @thefeinster/TikTok

Coldplay's Chris Martin Perfectly Shows How To Respect Someone's Gender Identity In Viral Clip

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin beautifully demonstrated how easy it is to respect people's gender pronouns during a live performance.

The London-based rock band was performing to three sold-out crowds last week in Auckland, New Zealand, as part of the Music of the Spheres World Tour when the lead singer's sweet interaction with a concertgoer received a positive response from the LGBTQ+ community.

Keep ReadingShow less