Michael Jackson Eating Popcorn

About

Michael Jackson eating popcorn is a gif animation and reaction image used in forums and comment threads to denote that the poster is going to enjoy watching a complex argument or discussion topic unfold, in similar vein as Dis Gon B Gud. As the popularity of the animation grew, image macros featuring various famous characters interacting with Michael Jackson and his popcorn were made.

Origin

The animated gif was taken from a scene of the famous music clip for Michael Jackson’s hit song Thriller, released in 1982. The peculiar segment shows Michael Jackson delightfully eating popcorn while watching a horror movie in a theater (shown below).

Spread

Usage

As early as September 2nd 2007, YTMND users were the first to make parodies about Michael Jackson enjoying pop-corn with a site^[1] made by Chiyoumen. As of January 2015, it has gained over 5 000 views. Between 2007 and 2013, three more sites were made dealing with the same joke^[2]. As a reaction image in particular, individual animated gifs of the scene seems to exist as early as April 2008^[3] which were often used in forums and boards to show that the poster is enjoying a peculiar heated debate between other posters. A 2011 post from themetapicture.com^[4] showed how the gif may work as an ideal reaction when witnessing a Facebook argument, for instance. On Reddit, Michael Jackson is the main icon of the r/popcorngif sub-reddit dealing with various animated gifs of people eating popcorn^[5].

I came here to read the comments

As the gif became more and more widely used as a reaction, image macro versions were made with the caption “I came here to read the comments”, sometimes reduced as “I’m here to read the comments” (shown below).

An entry for macros was submitted to Meme Generator on April 3rd 2014^[6]. As of January 2015, over 9 000 parodies were made.
This led to new macros featuring the catchphrase on other people.

Because the original gif and macros were so used when dealt with arguments online, a new trend emerged featuring various other famous macro memes interacting with Michael Jackson and his beloved popcorn (shown below).