# Drew Scanlon Reaction
Drew Scanlon Reaction, also called Blinking White Guy, is a GIF of Giant Bomb video editor Drew Scanlon doing a wide-eyed double take. Pulled from a December 2013 Unprofessional Fridays episode, it took off on Twitter in February 2017 as shorthand for stunned disbelief.
## Overview
Drew Scanlon Reaction, better known online as Blinking White Guy, is a short GIF of former Giant Bomb video editor Drew Scanlon glancing at the camera, blinking twice and pulling a small smirk in a classic double take[1]. People drop it into replies to signal wordless disbelief when someone says something dumb, wild or unexpectedly filthy[2].
The clip is usually posted as a soundless looping GIF around one to two seconds long, framed as a webcam facecam over a gameplay stream[2]. Its power comes from how quickly Scanlon shifts from focused listener to open confusion, which reads on any platform without setup[1]. In August 2019, a spinoff multi-panel comic format called First Guy To rebuilt the GIF into a static comic gag about how fast someone reacts to a piece of news[2].
## How It Spread
Blinking White Guy stayed niche until February 2017, when Twitter user @eksbl posted it on February 5th with a joke about surviving high school biology ("me: ill take a biology class, im smart enough for this just watch me / teacher: cells / me:"), pulling close to 50,000 retweets[5].
Within days, other Twitter accounts were racking up tens of thousands of retweets with their own setups using the same GIF, which is when it crossed over from Giant Bomb in-joke to general reaction image[2]. Fans on the Giant Bomb forums[6] and on a NeoGAF Giant Bomb community thread[7] started tracking the meme's spread with a mix of pride and confusion about their coworker suddenly being everywhere[2].
In August 2019, the GIF got a second life as First Guy To, a multi-panel format that pairs a still frame of Scanlon looking normal with a punchline frame of him mid-blink, used to show how fast someone reacts to a piece of news, in the same rhythm as the Surprised Pikachu template[2].
## How to Use
Typical usage is to quote-tweet or reply to a jaw-dropping or absurd statement with the GIF and no caption, letting Scanlon's double take carry the whole joke[2]. A common convention on Twitter is the "me / them / me:" setup where the GIF is the final "me:" line[5]. For the First Guy To variant, people often build a two panel image with a calm first panel and the blink frame as the reaction to something that happened seconds later[2].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Drew Scanlon Reaction?
It's a reaction GIF of Giant Bomb video editor Drew Scanlon doing a startled double take, also called Blinking White Guy[1].
### Where did Drew Scanlon Reaction come from?
From the December 6th, 2013 episode of Giant Bomb's Unprofessional Fridays, during a Starbound stream with Jeff Gerstmann[3].
### What does Drew Scanlon Reaction mean?
It expresses wordless disbelief or surprise at something absurd, dumb or unexpectedly crude that was just said[2].
### How do you use Drew Scanlon Reaction?
Post the GIF as a reply or as the final "me:" line in a setup tweet, letting the blink carry the punchline[5].
### Is Drew Scanlon Reaction still popular?
It stayed in circulation after its 2017 Twitter peak and picked up again in August 2019 through the First Guy To multi-panel format[2].
## References
1. [https://www.giantbomb.com/drew-scanlon/3040-58061/]()
2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/blinking-white-guy-drew-scanlon-reaction]()
3. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uyTWFUNdxc]()
4. [https://www.neogaf.com/]()
5. [https://twitter.com/eksbl]()
6. [https://forums.giantbomb.com/]()
7. [https://www.neogaf.com/threads/giant-bomb-community-thread.1332822/]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/drew-scanlon-reaction
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