Vince Carter Crying and Cheering
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Where it came from
From the Toronto Raptors retiring Vince Carter's #15 jersey on November 2, 2024. Camera caught him going through every emotion known to man in about four seconds — sobbing, then cheering, then sobbing again. Twitter clipped it the same week and called it "the meme of the decade," and they weren't entirely joking.
Vince Carter at his own jersey retirement is what every group chat looks like during one specific text exchange. He cries, he yells, he hypes himself up, he cries again. There is no in-between state. He is in every state at the same time.
It became a reaction template basically overnight. Someone posts "me when my Uber Eats finally arrives" and slaps the Vince clip on it. Sports Twitter especially went feral with it — Carter cheering when your team scores, Carter sobbing when they immediately give it back. The emotional range fits every situation.
What makes it stick is that he's not performing. The guy is genuinely overcome, and that authenticity is what makes the meme funny — you can't fake that level of "I am feeling everything right now." It's the rare meme where the joke and the sincerity are the exact same thing.
Search interest, over time
↳ data courtesy of google trends
