Bad Luck Brian Meme Template

This portrait originated in January 2012 when Reddit user Ian Craven posted a middle school yearbook photo of his longtime childhood friend, Kyle Craven (dubbed "Brian" in the original thread).

Craven intentionally wore a thrifted red tartan sweater vest and deliberately rubbed his face to look flushed while contorting his features into an awkward, braced-up grimace for picture day. The Reddit post was paired with the caption: "Takes driving test... Gets first DUI."

The image surged across Reddit (specifically r/AdviceAnimals), Quickmeme, 9GAG, and Tumblr, solidifying its place alongside Success Kid and Scumbag Steve as one of the defining staples of the early-2010s Advice Animals era. It became the web's universal format for tragicomically terrible luck, where an innocent person attempts an ordinary or positive feat only for circumstances to backfire catastrophically.

Astronomical bad luck, catastrophic backfires, tragicomic misfortune, awkward adolescence, and cosmic unfairness.

• The Subject (Center): A teenage boy with neat blonde bowl-cut hair, a flushed pink complexion, squinting light eyes, and dental braces showing through a wide, strained, grimacing grin.
• The Attire: A red, black, and white plaid/tartan knitted sweater vest layered over a pale light-blue collared polo shirt.
• A mottled deep-purple school portrait photography backdrop featuring standard soft studio lighting.
• The Framing: A standard head-and-shoulders bust shot characteristic of American middle school or high school annual photo sessions.

The portrait embodies classic teenage awkwardness magnified into a symbol of cosmic misfortune. Dressed in a loud, mismatched plaid sweater vest with dental braces fully exposed in a rigid grimace, the subject looks like someone destined to be picked on by fate itself. The sheer innocence and forced cheerfulness of the smile contrast sharply with the extreme disasters described in its text setups. Across early meme culture and beyond, the template serves as the standard visual vehicle for jokes where every hopeful beginning collapses into an absurdly tragic outcome.