Meme Celebrities
Scumbag Steve: the guy in the sideways cap
Blake Boston's mother took a photo of him at 16. Five years later the internet decided he was the worst roommate in the world.
In 2006 Susan Boston photographed her 16-year-old son Blake in the hallway of their home in Millis, Massachusetts: a sideways cap, a fur-trimmed jacket and a look that seems to say he's about to borrow something and never give it back.
The worst friend on the internet
In January 2011 the photo was posted to Reddit and 4chan, and Scumbag Steve was born: the character who borrows your PS3 and brings back a PS2, who comes to your party and drinks all your beer. The joke was always the same - a normal favour on top, the worst possible behaviour underneath.
Scumbag Steve: Scumbag Steve is a photo of a young man in a sideways baseball cap and a fur-lined jacket, standing in a doorway with a smirk.
Learning to live with it
At first Boston fought back, angrily demanding that sites take the pictures down - which only made the internet love the joke more. Then he changed tack. He recorded rap songs as Blake Boston aka Scumbag Steve, performed at SXSW and ROFLCon in 2012, and turned down offers of thousands of dollars for the original cap. He has since spoken openly about how hard it was to be known as a scumbag by people who'd never met him.
Watch him tell it
How I Became ‘Scumbag Steve’ | Meet the Meme (Know Your Meme, YouTube)
Scumbag Steve Video Interview (RoughDraftTV, YouTube)
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