Are you excited about this year's E3 news or disappointed? Are you tempted to use a pair of photos to juxtapose the two possibilities? Well, that meme of four guys reacting just turned 10 years old!

 

Know Your Meme explains

The photograph of four IGN reporters (Matt Casamassina, Craig Harris, Chadd Chamers, Peer Schneider) looking rather disinterested was originally taken during Nintendo’s conference at E3 2003 Expo, where Nintendo’s CEO introduced “Pacman vs.” for GameCube.

 

The photograph of the same men looking excited was taken one year later during Nintendo’s conference at E3 2004 Expo where they announced the release of a new Zelda title.

 

Originally posted on IGN board, these two photographs were incorporated into the Yonkoma comic-strip format on /ghard/ (Game Hardware) board in 2channel, where it was dubbed “Gaijin 4koma” or “4-frame foreigners” in Japanese. According to the archived threads, the comic strips became popular on 2channel as early as in June 2004.

 

 

From 2channel, the meme found its way to English on 4chan, and from there, it became ubiquitous.

 

It's worked its way into anime from Bakemonogatari to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure...

And, it's inspired tons of fanart...

 

via http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=112088

 

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.