Internet slang for a hooded 2013 photo of Peyton Manning that Redditors used as a Rickroll-style bait-and-switch prank.

Where did ManningFace come from?

A photograph of Manning warming up in Englewood, Colorado on January 10, 2013, days before a Broncos-Ravens divisional playoff game, posted to /r/nfl two days later by Redditor FusRoDah7.

What does ManningFace mean?

It names the hooded Manning image and the schadenfreude joke built around it, sometimes paired with the coinage 'Manningfreude' for pleasure taken in Manning's on-field misery.

How do you use ManningFace?

Drop the picture in place of the content a link or thread suggests, so the reveal is the hooded Manning shot itself rather than what the reader expected.

Is ManningFace still popular?

The image had a long run on Reddit through 2016 and settled in as a classic bait-and-switch reference from the mid-2010s alongside the Rickroll.

ManningFace

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Published September 5, 2026

ManningFace refers to a January 2013 photograph of Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning kneeling on the practice field in a black hood, an image Redditors turned into a long-running bait-and-switch prank in the style of a Rickroll. First mocked for the size of Manning's forehead, the picture cycled through /r/nfl, /r/OutOfTheLoop and /r/funny for years and settled into Reddit's regular rotation of gotcha links.

bait and switch memes nfl memes subreddit origin memes unwilling celebrity memes prank memes

Overview

The gag works like a Rickroll. Someone posts what looks like a normal article, video, or celebrity photo, and the click lands on the hooded Manning shot instead. The picture is unremarkable on its own, just a quarterback stretching in cold Colorado air, but the low angle emphasizes Manning's forehead and gives him a startled, almost cartoonish look that made it good punchline material for anyone wanting to razz Manning fans3.

Beyond the picture itself, ManningFace picked up its own slang. Urban Dictionary defined 'Manningfreude' as pleasure derived from Peyton Manning's on-field misery, capturing the schadenfreude that made the image funny to fans of rival teams3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Reddit (/r/nfl, /r/OutOfTheLoop viral spread)

Date

2013

On January 10th, 2013, Manning was photographed wearing a black hood while warming up in Englewood, Colorado, days before the Broncos' AFC divisional playoff meeting with the Baltimore Ravens1. Two days later, Redditor FusRoDah7 posted the picture to /r/nfl, where it drew about 1,600 upvotes and 200 comments, most of them roasting the size of Manning's forehead2.

How It Spread

The image sat as an /r/nfl inside joke for over a year before it started circulating as a bait-and-switch gag. On February 4th, 2014, Redditor throwawayx505 asked 'What's up with this picture of Peyton Manning?' on /r/OutOfTheLoop and was pointed back to the original thread; that September the picture was formally added to the subreddit's wiki as 'Manningface' after another user was told it was a 'bait and switch gag'2.

The joke had staying power. A close-up crop uploaded to Imgur on November 30th, 2015 pulled in more than 5.8 million views over the following 14 months as Redditors kept dropping the picture into unrelated comment threads, and by December 2016 a /r/MemeEconomy post was citing ManningFace as an example of surprise-gotcha formats that go through predictable revival cycles2.

How to Use This Meme

The template is a link-and-image bait swap. The common convention is to post the picture in place of the content a headline, comment, or thread promises, an interesting story, a different athlete, a specific play, so the reveal is the hooded Manning shot itself with no explanation.