"Primetime" star Skyler Gisondo is fully aware that he's one of the biggest memes on the internet right now.
The joke relies on Gisondo's boy-next-door look – his freckles and smile convey neighborhood rascal to many online. He's become the internet's go-to image for the archetype in viral memes, which couple red carpet photos of him with captions about a stereotypical neighborhood kid from the 2000s.
"He looks like he'd break his arm at recess and come back to school with a green cast," reads one caption of a viral tweet. "He would buy a Guinness World Record book at the book fair," reads another tweet from Oct. 3 with 22,000 likes.
Gisondo has a personal pick. He said
in a Sept. 24 interview with Vanity Fair, "My favorite one was, 'This guy looks like he could do a crazy trick on the trampoline' or something," referencing a 2022 tweet from user @igetsoinspired. It's credited as the original Skyler Gisondo meme by Know Your Meme, and boasts more than 103,000 likes today.
But Gisondo apparently cannot do a crazy trampoline trick. "Maybe at 25, not at 30. My trick days are done," he told Vanity Fair.
he looks like he can do a crazy trick on the trampoline pic.twitter.com/guoOW128lW
— Meggy⁵⁰⁰ (@igetsoinspired) February 24, 2022
The interview is not the first time he's acknowledged the meme. Back in 2022, he reposted the trampoline tweet on his Instagram story. "Means a lot," he wrote. "Just feeling really seen right now."
Skyler Gisondo memes have become more frequent this year, coinciding with his role in "Primetime." He portrays Decoy Dan in the film, an adult actor playing a 13-year-old boy for Chris Hansen's notorious Dateline NBC show "To Catch a Predator." Gisondo's youthful look is what's being highlighted in both the meme and the film.
Gisondo has reposted several of his own memes on Instagram this year. "Favorite one from the new batch," he wrote in his Instagram Story on Oct. 7, paired with a meme showing himself holding a dog in an outdoor setting, captioned, "He looks like he's been promised a better life out west."
“As an actor, the dream is to make stuff that means something to people, that they care about and that resonates. To see that reflected in this way, whether it’s in memes or just in any kind of positive sentiment, it’s so sweet and fulfilling,” Gisondo told Vanity Fair.
Not every actor is as well-versed in their online presence as Gisondo.
Last month, USA TODAY asked actor Glen Powell about his viral "John Politics" meme. It centers on an image of Powell (from a GQ photo shoot) wearing a suit with an American flag pin, and he's smizing for the camera with a shiny glaze over his hair and face. The image became a placeholder for the stereotypical American politician, dubbed "John Politics."
Powell says people have told him about the meme, but he's not too familiar with it. "I actually don't know what it is. I just know that I'm sweaty and greasy," he says. "I'm probably not the one to understand it, but I'm honored, I think."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Skyler Gisondo responds to the internet's viral memes about him
