# Misunderstood D-Bag

A stock photo of a soul-patched man in a popped-collar polo became the face of a 2011 Advice Animals series where the top caption named a frat-boy sin and the bottom caption gave it an innocent excuse. By late August 2011, Memebase had rebranded him as Misunderstood Mitch, and the macro ran across Reddit, Quickmeme and Tumblr for the next year.

## Origin
The base image is a stock photograph titled "Optimistic Man," uploaded to iStockPhoto by Canadian photographer Justin Horrocks on January 3rd, 2007[1]. The man in the photo is a model, not a real person named Mitch, and had no connection to the meme that was later built on his picture.

The earliest known macro, captioned "pops collar to protect neck from sunburn," first appeared on Quickmeme and was reposted to the r/AdviceAnimals subreddit on August 8th, 2011, where it hit the subreddit's front page with 1,652 upvotes[2]. Eight days later, on August 16th, Memebase published a post christening the character "Misunderstood Mitch," and that nickname stuck alongside the original D-Bag label[1].

- **Platform:** Quickmeme / Reddit (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2011

## Overview
Misunderstood D-Bag, also known as Misunderstood Mitch, takes a stock photo of a smiling guy in a blue polo with a popped collar and a soul patch and uses him for a two-line setup. The top line reads like something Scumbag Steve would do, and the bottom line hits with a wholesome reason that reframes the behavior as totally reasonable[1]. The gag is the swerve from assumed douchebaggery to accidental decency.

The writing convention leans on frat-boy signifiers (polos, protein shakes, Jager bombs, girls at the bar) and then undercuts them with excuses like helping a friend, protecting someone's feelings, or avoiding sunburn[2]. The format sits squarely between its two obvious parents on the Advice Animals grid: Scumbag Steve for the surface read and Good Guy Greg for the twist[1].

## How to Use
A typical entry writes a stereotypically terrible action on the top line ("Buys girl at the bar a drink" or "Wears Ed Hardy to the gym") and then supplies a benign motive on the bottom line ("She looked thirsty," "It was laundry day"). The common convention is to keep both lines short and to make the excuse as mundane as possible, so the reveal reads deadpan rather than clever.

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Misunderstood D-Bag?
An Advice Animals image macro that pairs a frat-boy action on the top line with an innocent justification on the bottom line, using a stock photo of a man in a popped-collar polo[1].

### Where did Misunderstood D-Bag come from?
The base image is Justin Horrocks' 2007 stock photo "Optimistic Man"[1], and the first macro reached Reddit's r/AdviceAnimals on August 8th, 2011, where it got 1,652 upvotes[2].

### What does Misunderstood D-Bag mean?
The joke is that the guy looks like a Scumbag Steve type but every caption reveals his awful-sounding action had a wholesome reason behind it[1].

### Why is he also called Misunderstood Mitch?
Memebase published a post on August 16th, 2011 giving the character the "Misunderstood Mitch" nickname, and the name caught on alongside the original[1].

### Is Misunderstood D-Bag still popular?
Not really. By May 2012 the format had over 1,000 Quickmeme entries[1], but like most Advice Animals grids it faded after that and now reads as a classic 2011 macro.

## References
1. [https://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/jc60i/misunderstood_dbag/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/jc60i/misunderstood_dbag/>)
2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/misunderstood-d-bag](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/misunderstood-d-bag>)
3. [https://www.thebigster.com/the-best-of-misunderstood-d-bag](<https://www.thebigster.com/the-best-of-misunderstood-d-bag>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/misunderstood-d-bag
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