# "I Saw Flying Lotus in a Grocery Store..." Copypasta The "I Saw Flying Lotus in a Grocery Store..." copypasta is a fake celebrity encounter story where the narrator claims a beloved musician or public figure acted like an obnoxious jerk during a mundane errand. First posted to 4chan's /mu/ board in June 2012 about experimental producer Flying Lotus, it spawned a mad-libs template that swapped in dozens of celebrities over the following years. ## Origin The earliest known version was posted to the 4chan music board /mu/ on June 29th, 2012, starring experimental producer Flying Lotus[3]. Within a few months the story circulated widely enough on 4chan to earn its own shorthand, and by mid-September 2012 posters referenced "that FlyLo copypasta" as a known artifact when trading stories about meeting musicians. The original author is anonymous, in keeping with 4chan convention. - **Platform:** 4chan /mu/ (source) / KanyeToThe and wider 4chan (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2012 ## Overview The copypasta follows a tight formula. A first-person narrator claims they spotted a famous person doing something ordinary like grocery shopping, then walks through the celebrity behaving like a complete jerk to strangers, cashiers, or the poster themselves[3]. The prank works because the subject is almost always someone with a squeaky-clean public image, so a reader who loves the artist briefly believes their favorite is secretly awful. Common substitutions include Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Gosling, Anthony Fantano, Kendrick Lamar[1], and Nintendo director Masahiro Sakurai. The core beats of banal setting, escalating rudeness, and a disillusioned narrator stay intact, while the celebrity, the store, and the small offense get swapped to fit whichever board or fandom is reposting it[3]. The rewrites are why the story keeps landing on new audiences years after the original. ## How It Spread On September 1st, 2012, the story jumped from /mu/ to KanyeToThe, one of the busier hip-hop community forums of the era[2]. It bounced back to 4chan in copypasta form and started attracting substitute celebrities. A Matthew McConaughey version showed up on December 25th, 2012, and a Ryan Gosling remix followed on January 11th, 2013[3]. Later variants pulled in Anthony Fantano, Kendrick Lamar, and Masahiro Sakurai, moving the format beyond music forums and into gaming boards and general pop-culture threads. A Kendrick-focused thread surfaced on Genius' discussion board, where fans traded the story and argued about whether the encounter was real[1]. The rumor circulated enough that Snopes opened an investigation thread on celebrity grocery-store misbehavior[5], and r/OutOfTheLoop hosted a question asking about the origin[4]. ## How to Use The template typically opens with the poster casually mentioning they saw a celebrity at a grocery store (or coffee shop, gas station, record shop), then pivots into a specific rude act like cutting the line, snapping at an employee, or berating a fan. It often includes concrete product details to sell the scene, and closes on a line about how the poster will never look at the celebrity the same way again[3]. Picking a universally-liked figure is the common convention that gives the swap its punch. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is "I Saw Flying Lotus in a Grocery Store..." Copypasta? It is a 2012 4chan copypasta in which the poster claims to have seen a beloved celebrity acting like an obnoxious jerk during a mundane errand, originally starring producer Flying Lotus[3]. ### Where did "I Saw Flying Lotus in a Grocery Store..." Copypasta come from? The earliest known version was posted to 4chan's /mu/ music board on June 29th, 2012, and reposted to the KanyeToThe forum on September 1st, 2012[2][3]. ### What does "I Saw Flying Lotus in a Grocery Store..." Copypasta mean? The joke is a prank format that briefly tricks readers into thinking a celebrity they admire is secretly rude, which is why it works best with well-liked public figures[3]. ### How do you use "I Saw Flying Lotus in a Grocery Store..." Copypasta? Posters swap the celebrity name and small setting details while keeping the structure of a mundane encounter that turns into escalating rudeness, with past swaps including Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Gosling, and Kendrick Lamar[1][3]. ### Is "I Saw Flying Lotus in a Grocery Store..." Copypasta still popular? The template stayed in circulation across 4chan and other communities through the 2010s, with fresh celebrity swaps like Anthony Fantano and Masahiro Sakurai appearing, and it drew Snopes and r/OutOfTheLoop threads asking about its origin[3][4][5]. ## References 1. [https://genius.com/discussions/145222-I-met-kendrick-lamar]() 2. [https://kanyetothe.com/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-saw-flying-lotus-at-a-grocery-store]() 4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/]() 5. [https://www.snopes.com/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/i-saw-flying-lotus-in-a-grocery-store-copypasta Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library