# PhelpsFace

> An Olympic scowl became an Intel ad and ranked No. 6 in Google's US trending-meme list.

- Owner: null
- Kind: Meme & format
- Sector: Sports
- Seed date: 2016-08-09
- Peak date: Week of Aug 9, 2016
- Date basis: Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
- Spread Score: 63 (Viral), v1.2
- Mechanics: Remixable template, Creator relay, Platform jump, Press loop, Political adoption

## Summary

Viewers captioned NBC footage of Michael Phelps before an Olympic semifinal. Twitter jokes crossed to Reddit and a Toronto tattoo on Instagram. Phelps explained the face on TV, and Intel reused it in an ad.

## Timeline

- 2016-08-08 — NBC / Michael Phelps (TV) — NBC showed Phelps sitting behind Chad le Clos before their Olympic butterfly semifinal.
- 2016-08-09 — @ChiBDM (X) — @ChiBDM captioned the scowl with a joke about the real Slim Shady watching someone else stand up.
- 2016-08-09 — TIME (Press) — TIME reported that Phelps had become the meme of the moment and embedded viewers’ caption jokes.

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/phelpsface

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “PhelpsFace.” Case HIS-00344. Spread Score v1.2: 63/100. Updated 2026-10-12. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-00344