# PTSD Clarinet Boy

PTSD Clarinet Boy is an advice animal image macro built from a 2009 double-exposure school photo of a redheaded boy in a band uniform, ghosted onto the back of his own head. The captions started as first-person Vietnam veteran flashbacks and later shifted toward high school loser humor, marking one of the early advice animal formats to jump from Meme Generator into forums and Tumblr through 2010.

## Origin
The photograph first appeared on the family-photo blog Awkward Family Photos on July 17, 2009, under the title 'A Beautiful Mind'[1]. The site's caption asked readers to imagine what was going through the boy's head, effectively priming the joke before the meme existed. By December 2009 the image had reached Meme Generator, where it was labeled 'Veteran PTSD Clarinet Boy' and paired with a Vietnam war veteran narrator[3]. The exact first caption is not documented.

- **Platform:** Awkward Family Photos / Meme Generator (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2009

## Overview
The image itself is a family portrait warped by a double exposure: a redheaded boy in a school band uniform holds a clarinet while a full-body version of him drifts out from behind his own head[1]. The picture reads as a spaced-out stare, which captioners used as the visual for a mind lost in memory. Early captions borrowed the voice of a Vietnam war veteran mulling over flashbacks, with the ghosted figure treated as the memory playing inside his skull[3].

By 2010 the tone shifted. Newer captions read more like Karate Kyle or Vengeance Dad entries, framing the boy as a former high school loser reliving band-camp humiliations rather than combat trauma. The format stayed simple: one line of setup on top, one punch line on the bottom, both stamped in Impact font over the doubled portrait. As one eBaum's World roundup put it, 'I can only imagine the horrors he has seen'[2].

## How to Use
Add a two-line advice-animal caption in Impact font over the doubled portrait. The top line typically opens with 'I was' or another past-tense setup, and the bottom line lands the punch, framing the memory as either combat trauma or a high school humiliation like band camp, a first kiss gone wrong, or a bullying flashback.

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is PTSD Clarinet Boy?
It is a 2009 advice animal image macro built from a double-exposure family photo, captioned as first-person accounts of a Vietnam war veteran or a former high school outcast[1].

### Where did PTSD Clarinet Boy come from?
The photograph was posted to the family-photo blog Awkward Family Photos on July 17, 2009, under the title 'A Beautiful Mind'[1].

### What does PTSD Clarinet Boy mean?
The ghosted second figure works as a visual of memory, treated first as a war flashback and later as high school regret. As one eBaum's World roundup put it, 'I can only imagine the horrors he has seen'[2].

### How do you use PTSD Clarinet Boy?
Add a top-line setup and bottom-line punch line in Impact font over the doubled portrait, written in first person past tense from the boy's imagined perspective[2].

### Is PTSD Clarinet Boy still popular?
It peaked between 2010 and 2013 during the Meme Generator era, and while compilation sites like eBaum's World still host retrospective galleries, the format is largely inactive today[2].

## References
1. [https://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/a-beautiful-mind/](<https://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/a-beautiful-mind/>)
2. [https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/ptsd-clarinet-boy/81220959/](<https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/ptsd-clarinet-boy/81220959/>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ptsd-clarinet-boy](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ptsd-clarinet-boy>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/ptsd-clarinet-boy
Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library