# Bad Luck Brian

> A yearbook-photo meme brought its subject an estimated $15,000 to $20,000 in licensing.

- Owner: Kyle Craven
- Kind: Meme & format
- Sector: Culture (no sector)
- Seed date: 2012-01-23
- Milestone date: 2012-03-19
- Date basis: Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak.
- Spread Score: 20 (Niche, provisional), v1.2
- Mechanics: Platform jump, Press loop

## Summary

A friend posted Kyle Craven's school portrait on Reddit. Captions spread to 9gag and Pinterest, while Craven later appeared in interviews and advertising based on the character.

## Timeline

- 2012-01-23 — Ian Davies (Reddit) — Ian Davies posted Craven's school portrait with a driving-test joke.
- 2012-01-29 — Twenty Something (Open web) — Twenty Something collected examples of Bad Luck Brian captions.
- 2012-03-12 — Very_Juicy (Reddit) — A Reddit post reused the portrait with a classroom joke.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/bad-luck-brian

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Bad Luck Brian.” Case HIS-01023. Spread Score v1.2: 20/100. Updated 2026-10-17. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01023