# Confused Nick Young > Confused Nick Young is a 2014 reaction image of NBA player Swaggy P with question marks floating around his bewildered expression, used to convey confusion and disbelief. Confused Nick Young is a reaction image of NBA player Nick Young (aka Swaggy P) looking bewildered with question marks floating around his head. The image comes from a 2014 YouTube web series and went viral in 2015 on Black Twitter, becoming one of the internet's most-used visual shorthand for confusion and disbelief. ## Origin On July 22, 2014, photographer and filmmaker Cassy Athena uploaded an episode of her YouTube web series *Thru The Lens*, which followed athletes and celebrities through their daily routines[4]. The episode documented a day in the life of Nick Young, then a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, as he and his assistant Big Meat moved through Los Angeles[1]. During filming, Young's mother was interviewed about his childhood. She described him as the neighborhood prankster, recounting how a young Nick once walked into a gym where Lakers player Cedric Ceballos was working out, grabbed the ball, put on a wild impromptu performance, handed the ball back, and just left[1]. Ceballos reportedly said the kid would be great if he ever took the game seriously. Then his mother dropped the kicker: "he was a clown then"[5]. Young's reaction to being called a clown, a tilted-head look of exaggerated confusion caught on camera at the 5:42 mark, became the source image[2]. The episode was actually the first one filmed for the series but was released as the fourth episode of season one[1]. Someone later took a screenshot of Young's expression and added the now-iconic floating question marks, though exactly who made that edit is unknown[4]. - **Platform:** YouTube (source video), Twitter / Black Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Cassy Athena (filmmaker, source video), Unknown (question mark edit) - **Date:** 2014 (source video), 2015 (meme spread) ## Overview The meme is a screenshot of Nick Young mid-conversation, his head tilted slightly, eyebrows furrowed, wearing an expression of genuine bafflement[1]. Someone added three question marks on each side of his head, turning a candid moment into a clean, instantly readable reaction image[3]. The format is dead simple: Nick's confused face plus whatever absurd statement or situation you want to react to. That simplicity is exactly why it works. No caption template to learn, no multi-panel setup. Just pure, unfiltered "wait... what?"[3]. ## How It Spread The meme picked up steam throughout 2015. On July 13, 2015, the @WorldStarFunny Twitter account posted a photoshopped version of Young wearing a sombrero with the caption "Que?" alongside a joke about trying to sneak out of a house[4]. The tweet pulled over 4,000 likes and 1,900 retweets within two years[1]. Black Twitter ran with the format hard. The hashtag #GrowingUpBlack was trending on the platform, and users paired the Confused Nick Young image with relatable childhood moments[2]. Instagram user @daquan shared screen captures of the meme, and on December 10, 2015, posted a Confused Nick Young with the caption "How many apps y'all gon use to talk to the same fuckin people," which picked up over 157,100 notes in 13 months[4]. On November 25, 2015, Twitter user @ChadJordan23 posted a photoshop of Young dressed as a Men in Black agent holding a neuralyzer, captioned with a joke about discussing a recent breakup[2]. That tweet hit 19,200 likes and 15,000 retweets within 14 months[4]. The meme's biggest mainstream moment came on January 15, 2016, when actor Lamorne Morris (Winston from *New Girl*) got courtside tickets to a Lakers vs. Clippers game and decided to troll Young by holding up a printed copy of the meme image right in front of him[5]. Morris posted the video to Instagram, where it racked up over 298,000 views and 800 comments within 24 hours[4]. Young laughed it off, very much in character for the guy whose nickname is Swaggy P[2]. Google search interest for Nick Young peaked in late March 2016, likely driven by a combination of the meme's momentum and events in his personal life[2]. ## How to Use The Confused Nick Young meme works as a reaction to anything baffling, contradictory, or just plain weird. The question marks are optional but widely considered part of the canonical format. 1. Save the image of Nick Young with question marks around his head 2. Use it as a reply image: drop it in a thread or group chat when someone says something that makes no sense 3. For caption format, write a setup like 'When someone says [confusing thing]' above or alongside the image 4. Use the GIF version on platforms like Discord and Twitter for inline reactions 5. For remix edits, swap Young's outfit via Photoshop to match a specific scenario ## Cultural Impact Young himself leaned into the meme entirely. "That thing ain't died. It's been, what, two years now?" he said. "Some people only recognize me for that — ain't you the meme guy?"[1]. In a later appearance on the "Gil's Arena" show, Young revealed extra backstory: the conversation that triggered the confused face involved his mother discovering he'd visited a strip club on Valentine's Day, and his feigned innocence produced the now-famous expression[5]. The meme reached the finals of The Ringer's NBA Meme Bracket in 2018, competing against other basketball-born reaction images for the title of best NBA meme[5]. Its popularity on Black Twitter specifically made it a key part of the platform's visual language during 2015-2016, often appearing alongside trending hashtags and during major cultural moments like the Drake and Meek Mill feud[4]. The meme also became a crossover between sports culture and internet culture more broadly. Young wasn't just an NBA player who happened to become a meme. He was a fashion-forward personality already known as Swaggy P, someone who'd done a guest fashion editor stint at Calvin Klein[6] and cultivated an outsized public persona. The meme fit because it captured something real about him: a guy who genuinely seemed confused by the idea that anyone would call him a clown[1]. ## Fun Facts - The *Thru The Lens* episode was the first one filmed for the series but was released as episode four of season one[1]. - The meme-worthy moment happens at exactly the 5:42 mark in the original YouTube video, which has over one million views[2]. - Young's real reaction was to his mother calling him "a clown," but he later claimed the deeper context involved getting caught going to a strip club on Valentine's Day[5]. - Lamorne Morris showing Young his own meme courtside in January 2016 was one of the earliest documented cases of a meme subject being confronted with their meme in real life at a public event[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the Confused Nick Young meme? It's a reaction image of NBA player Nick Young looking bewildered with question marks floating around his head, used to express confusion or disbelief at absurd statements[3]. ### Where did the Confused Nick Young meme come from? The source image is from a July 2014 episode of *Thru The Lens*, a YouTube web series by Cassy Athena that followed a day in Young's life[4]. ### What does the Confused Nick Young meme mean? It's used to visually say "wait... what?" in response to something confusing, contradictory, or nonsensical. The question marks amplify the feeling of bafflement[3]. ### How do you use the Confused Nick Young meme? Post the image (or GIF) as a reply to something confusing, or pair it with a caption describing a baffling situation, like "When someone says they don't like pizza"[3]. ### Is the Confused Nick Young meme still popular? The meme saw peak usage in 2015-2016 and was still widely recognized as of 2018, when it reached the finals of The Ringer's NBA Meme Bracket[5]. It still circulates as a reaction image, though less frequently than during its peak years. ### Why did Nick Young make that face? Young's mother called him "a clown" during an interview about his childhood, and his exaggerated confusion at the remark was captured on camera[1]. He later said the conversation also involved his mother discovering a Valentine's Day strip club visit[5]. ### Who is Cassy Athena? She's a photographer and filmmaker who created the *Thru The Lens* web series, which provided behind-the-scenes access to athletes and celebrities. Her footage of Nick Young produced the source material for the meme[1]. ### Who added the question marks to the image? The person who first screenshotted Young's face and added the floating question marks is unknown, though the enhanced image began circulating online in 2015[4]. ### What is Swaggy P? Swaggy P is Nick Young's nickname, referencing his flashy personality and fashion sense. The meme is sometimes called the "Swaggy P" meme[4]. ### Why was the meme popular on Black Twitter? The meme gained major traction through Black Twitter, where it was used with hashtags like #GrowingUpBlack to react to relatable cultural moments and during events like the Drake and Meek Mill feud[2][4]. ### How did Nick Young react to being a meme? He embraced it. When Lamorne Morris showed him the meme image courtside at a Lakers game in January 2016, Young laughed[5]. He later said, "Some people only recognize me for that — ain't you the meme guy?"[1]. ## References 1. [Confused Nick Young | Meme Reference]() 2. [A Confused Nick Young. The word meme originated from Richard… | by Alex Zhang | Medium]() 3. [Why The “Confused Nick Young” Meme Is The Perfect Response To Ridiculous Statements]() 4. [Confused Nick Young - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Groypers]() 6. [The Story Behind The "Confused Nick Young MEME" - Hoops Central]() 7. [I Was Fashion Editor For A Day At Calvin Klein - OPENING CEREMONY]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/confused-nick-young Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library