# Cigar Guy Cigar Guy is a 2010 photobomb meme built around a spectator in a ginger wig, fake moustache, and fat Havana cigar who appeared behind Tiger Woods in a Ryder Cup action shot. The spectator, later identified as London investment analyst Rupesh Shingadia, was dressed as Spanish golfer Miguel Ángel Jiménez, and his wide-eyed cameo triggered a wave of Photoshop edits pasting him into famous photographs. ## Overview Cigar Guy is a photobomb meme built from a single sports photograph shot at the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in Wales[1]. The picture, taken by Mail on Sunday photographer Mark Pain, freezes the instant a golf ball duffed by Tiger Woods flew straight at the camera lens, with Woods grimacing in the foreground and a row of spectators watching in the background[1]. One face in that row stole the whole frame: a fan in a ginger wig, thick fake moustache, and a fat Havana cigar, staring wide-eyed at the incoming ball[3]. The meme itself is not really the golf shot. It is the small crop of the moustachioed spectator, cut out and dropped into other famous photographs as a Photoshop gag[4]. Early edits stuck him into everything from The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover to historic news pictures, always with the same startled expression[3]. The nickname Cigar Guy was pinned on him within a day, before anyone knew who he was[4]. The joke works because the source photo is already extraordinary on its own. The ball, Woods' pained face, and the strange man in costume are all in sharp focus at once, so the eye keeps drifting to the wig and cigar even without any edit[2]. Once the internet noticed him, Cigar Guy became a face people wanted to place inside every other iconic image they could find[3]. ## How It Spread The cigar-toting fan was flagged early by a Redditor posting under the handle aatmka, who uploaded a Facebomb-style edit that replaced every face in the crowd with the same spectator[4]. The humor site BroBible piled on the same day, running its own set of Photoshops that dropped the fan into unrelated images[4]. By 4 October 2010, Urlesque, Memebase, and Tauntr had all posted galleries, and a Facebook fan page for the still-anonymous man had gone up[4]. Mainstream press picked it up on 5 October 2010, when MSNBC covered the Photoshop wave, followed the next day by Bleacher Report, the Huffington Post, The Washington Post, TIME NewsFeed, Funny or Die, and a second Daily Mail write-up focused on the meme rather than the golf[3][4]. That Daily Mail piece from 6 October 2010 documented the album-cover edits and made the Miguel Ángel Jiménez tribute angle explicit for readers who did not follow European golf[3]. On 9 October 2010, The Mail on Sunday tracked the spectator to a house in South London and named him as Rupesh Shingadia, a 30-year-old investment analyst working in the City[2]. In an exclusive interview, Shingadia said he was 'embarrassed and overwhelmed' by the attention and confirmed the costume was a tribute to Spanish golfer Miguel Ángel Jiménez, worn to show support for the European team[2]. He was interviewed on NBC's TODAY show on 15 October 2010, closing out the meme's brief run through legacy media[4]. ## How to Use The template is simple: crop the Cigar Guy figure out of the original Mark Pain photograph and paste him into another famous image at roughly the same scale, keeping his startled face and cigar intact[3]. Early edits often placed him in the Sgt Pepper album cover crowd, historic war photos, and other sports action shots where his ginger wig would clash with the setting[3]. The gag works best when the host image is instantly recognisable, so the viewer spots him quickly and does the double-take the original photo already produces[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Cigar Guy? Cigar Guy is a 2010 photobomb meme centred on a spectator in a ginger wig, fake moustache, and cigar who appeared behind Tiger Woods in a Ryder Cup action photograph[1]. ### Where did Cigar Guy come from? He came from a photograph shot by Mail on Sunday photographer Mark Pain at the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in Wales, published on MailOnline on 3 October 2010[1]. ### What does Cigar Guy mean? The name refers to the wide-eyed fan smoking a fat Havana cigar in the crowd, whom bloggers nicknamed Cigar Guy before his identity was known[3]. ### How do you use Cigar Guy? The typical use is a Photoshop edit that lifts the spectator out of the Ryder Cup shot and drops him into famous historic or pop-culture images, keeping his startled face and cigar visible[3]. ### Is Cigar Guy still popular? It is a classic 2010 meme rather than an active format, but the original photograph is still referenced whenever a comparable sports photobomb appears, such as the 2017 Fenway Park first-pitch photo[4]. ### Who is the man in the Cigar Guy photo? He is Rupesh Shingadia, a 30-year-old South London investment analyst identified by The Mail on Sunday on 9 October 2010[2]. ### Why was Cigar Guy dressed like that? Shingadia said the ginger wig, moustache, and cigar were a tribute to Spanish golfer Miguel Ángel Jiménez, worn to show support for the European Ryder Cup team[2]. ### Who took the original Cigar Guy photograph? Mark Pain, a photographer for The Mail on Sunday, took it after Tiger Woods duffed a chip shot straight into his camera on the last hole of a fourball match[1]. ### What happened to Tiger Woods on the shot? Woods hit the ground behind the ball while trying to chip from wet rough, sending the ball off line and into Pain's camera lens before it bounced onto his chest[1]. ### Did Cigar Guy do any TV appearances? Yes, Shingadia appeared on NBC's TODAY show on 15 October 2010 after the Daily Mail identified him[4]. ### What is the 2017 Fenway Park connection? On 16 August 2017, teenager Jordan Leandre's first pitch struck photographer Tony Capobianco, and Capobianco's tweeted photo of the incoming ball was widely compared to the Cigar Guy image on Reddit[4]. ## References 1. [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/golf/article-1317267/RYDER-CUP-2010-The-moment-Tiger-Woodss-challenge-Celtic-Manor-halted--photographer.html]() 2. [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/golf/article-1319238/Cigar-guy-revealed-We-man-stood-Tiger-Woods-internet-sensation.html]() 3. [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1318246/Tiger-Woods-cigar-guy-internet-phenomenon-appearing-Ryder-Cup-pic-taken-Mails-photographer.html]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cigar-guy]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/cigar-guy Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library