A while back, we ‘wagoneers considered the question “Should you put your kids’ photos on the Internet?” We looked at a range of possible consequences, from stalkers to simple shame, but there was one result we failed to take into account—that your kid’s photo could become a Japanese Internet meme.
That’s what happened to Stephen, who was a newborn in 2000 when his father, Allen S. Rout, posted online a picture of his happy countenance. Today, that image has been reworked a thousand times by web-savvy folk in Japan, who’ve morphed Stephen’s face into everything from Kurt Cobain and Elvis Presley to an 8-bit videogame and a real-life sculpture. Pretty wacky stuff, but I guess that’s what we’ve come to expect from the Japanese.
I don’t know how Mr. Rout feels about all this, but for me, the Japanese meme-ification of Sasha would be the culmination of all my hopes and dreams.