# "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?" "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?" is a reaction image pulled from a February 2012 episode of 30 Rock, in which Steve Buscemi dresses as a teenager complete with backward cap and skateboard while trying to blend in at a high school. The screen cap became shorthand online for anyone, especially brands, awkwardly faking membership in a subculture they clearly don't belong to, and grew into one of the internet's go-to jabs at try-hard adults. ## Origin The scene first aired on February 16, 2012, in "The Tuxedo Begins," the eighth episode of 30 Rock's sixth season[3]. Buscemi's private detective Lenny Wosniak flashes back to a botched undercover job at a high school, a bit that parodies 21 Jump Street, and approaches a group of students in a backward cap and skateboard before delivering the greeting that gave the meme its name[2]. Buscemi was 54 at the time, and the whole gag hinged on how visibly unconvincing his teenage disguise was[3]. - **Platform:** NBC (30 Rock) / Reddit and Tumblr (viral spread) - **Creator:** Tina Fey and the 30 Rock writers (scene performed by Steve Buscemi) - **Date:** 2012 ## Overview The image shows Buscemi's character Lenny Wosniak greeting a group of teens with the cheerful title line while wearing a backward baseball cap, a skateboard slung over one shoulder, and a T-shirt that reads "Music Band" in the style of the AC/DC logo[2]. People pair the screenshot with corporate tweets, cringe ads, or friends fumbling slang they clearly picked up ten minutes ago[3]. Photoshopped variants swap the "Music Band" shirt for the name of a specific fandom or replace the teens with a target community, which lets the format stay legible across every new wave of subculture drama[3]. The tone is almost always mocking, though there is a self-deprecating strain too. Posters use the line to admit they are the out-of-touch adult in the room while quietly proving they at least know the meme[1]. That double-meta reading, calling something cringe with a cringey image, is a big part of why the format stuck around long after most other 30 Rock jokes faded online[1]. ## How It Spread Subtitled screenshots of the moment started circulating in spring 2012 as 30 Rock headed toward its finale and fans put together lists of favorite scenes[3]. We Know Memes reposted the reaction image on October 11, 2012, one of the early stops in its spread as a standalone reaction[3]. The phrase also picked up steady use on 4chan's /v/ board and on Tumblr, where multiple blogs took the line as their name[3]. On August 2, 2014, Redditors three_am, dillonfbecker, and Urplescurple launched /r/FellowKids as a place to collect brands and older adults awkwardly aping youth slang, and the subreddit grew past 194,000 subscribers within three years[4]. A defining post came on May 26, 2016, when Redditor bosoxdanc shared a Bagel Bites Facebook ad featuring an elderly man cosplaying the exact Buscemi outfit with the caption "God, this is really meta… and I like it"; it pulled more than 27,000 upvotes on Reddit and 1.6 million views on Imgur[3]. By mid-2017, the joke had aged into the thing it once mocked. In a July 13, 2017 piece for The Verge, Kaitlyn Tiffany argued that posting the image was itself now uncool, a double-meta trap in which using the meme worked exactly like walking into a high school with a skateboard[1]. ## How to Use The classic template is the subtitled screenshot of Buscemi in cap and skateboard, dropped as a reply to any post where a brand, politician, or older person tries to sound young[1]. Common variants swap the "Music Band" shirt for a specific fandom's logo or edit the surrounding teens into a target community, and many posters skip the image entirely and use the phrase as a stand-alone comment[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?"? It is a reaction image taken from a 2012 30 Rock scene in which Steve Buscemi's character dresses as a teenager to infiltrate a high school, used to mock people or brands who obviously fake belonging to a subculture[1]. ### Where did "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?" come from? The scene aired on February 16, 2012, in the 30 Rock episode "The Tuxedo Begins," and subtitled screenshots started appearing online that spring[3]. ### What does "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?" mean? It calls out someone, often a company or an older adult, who is trying way too hard to sound like they are part of a younger group and failing obviously at it[1]. ### How do you use "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?"? Reply to a cringey brand tweet or out-of-touch attempt at slang with the Buscemi screenshot, or just type the phrase; photoshopped versions that swap the "Music Band" shirt for a specific fandom are also common[3]. ### Is "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?" still popular? It is a classic reaction image with staying power; The Verge noted as early as 2017 that the meme had reached a self-aware, double-meta status and the /r/FellowKids community was already past 194,000 subscribers[1][4]. ## References 1. [https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/13/15966094/30-rock-buscemi-how-do-you-do-fellow-kids-meme-kill-it-please]() 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiOMbqPHFwo]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-do-you-do-fellow-kids]() 4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/FellowKids/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/how-do-you-do-fellow-kids Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library