Selfie Olympics

2013Photo faddead

Also known as: Trick Shot Selfie · #And1SelfieLeague · #TrickShotSelfies · The Selfie Game

Selfie Olympics is a 2013 photo fad where Twitter users took bathroom mirror selfies while striking difficult poses with absurd props.

Selfie Olympics is a photo fad where participants take mirror-shot selfies in bathrooms while striking physically difficult poses or surrounding themselves with absurd props. The trend kicked off in late 2013 on Twitter and became the first major meme of 2014 when the hashtag #SelfieOlympics went viral3. It saw a notable revival during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang1.

photo fad memeschallenge memesselfie memeshashtag memes

Overview

The Selfie Olympics follow a simple formula: stand in front of a bathroom mirror, add as many ridiculous elements as possible, and snap a selfie. Entries range from people contorting into gymnastic poses on door frames and sinks to cramming entire living rooms worth of furniture into the bathroom3. The competition aspect is informal. There are no judges, no prizes, and no organization beyond the hashtag. Twitter users simply try to one-up each other with increasingly elaborate or physically demanding setups4.

Two main approaches emerged over time. One school focuses on athletic feats: climbing doors, balancing upside down, or performing yoga poses while somehow still holding the phone3. The other approach leans into maximum absurdity, stuffing the bathroom with random household objects like toasters, Christmas trees, ball pits, and kayaks3.

On November 21, 2013, FreeOnSmash blogger Rock Burgundy tweeted a photograph of a young man taking a mirror selfie while holding his phone with both hands to the side of his head5. Burgundy coined the hashtags #TrickShotSelfies and #AND1SelfieLeague, framing the selfie as a basketball-style trick shot6.

The concept sat relatively quiet for about a month before exploding on Christmas Day. On the morning of December 25, 2013, Twitter user YungTumbleweed shared a selfie showing a man in a climbing position around a door frame5. That tweet pulled in more than 2,300 retweets and 1,600 favorites in its first week. Later the same day, user LittleMissSunshine posted another entry showing someone balanced on top of a bathroom sink, pushing against the wall for support5.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter
Key People
Rock Burgundy, Bradley Sanborn
Date
2013

On November 21, 2013, FreeOnSmash blogger Rock Burgundy tweeted a photograph of a young man taking a mirror selfie while holding his phone with both hands to the side of his head. Burgundy coined the hashtags #TrickShotSelfies and #AND1SelfieLeague, framing the selfie as a basketball-style trick shot.

The concept sat relatively quiet for about a month before exploding on Christmas Day. On the morning of December 25, 2013, Twitter user YungTumbleweed shared a selfie showing a man in a climbing position around a door frame. That tweet pulled in more than 2,300 retweets and 1,600 favorites in its first week. Later the same day, user LittleMissSunshine posted another entry showing someone balanced on top of a bathroom sink, pushing against the wall for support.

How It Spread

The real tipping point came on January 3, 2014, when the Twitter account @SelfyOlympics launched to curate the best submissions. Within hours, #SelfieOlympics was trending on Twitter. The account had racked up over 90,000 followers by the weekend and changed its username to @SelfyGames four days later on January 7.

WIRED called it the "first big viral meme of 2014" and highlighted the creativity on display. Among the standouts was Garrett Nall, an 18-year-old University of North Texas student who filled his bathroom with his 4-year-old brother's old ball pit, wore a toy fire hat while sitting in it, and had a giant Pikachu doll hold the phone. Sean Huang, a 16-year-old from Dallas, saw the trend at 3 a.m. and spent the next day stuffing his bathroom with a toaster, his Christmas tree, a bike, a guitar, and a gun before snapping a self-timer shot from the bathtub.

NBC News covered the trend with a tongue-in-cheek guide on "how to win," noting that entries ranged from Photoshopped optical illusions to pop culture references to a cancer patient flipping off the camera from a hospital bed. BuzzFeed published a scored rundown of 22 entries, awarding points for details like dental hygiene products visible on the sink and docking points for using an iPad instead of a phone.

The trend died down by late January 2014, but returned four years later. On February 18, 2018, Twitter user @Bradleysanborn posted a series of mirror selfies including one of himself riding a bicycle in the bathtub with a bag of golf clubs over his shoulder. His tweet read "we're bringing back the #selfieolympics in 2018" and pulled 67,000 retweets and 187,000 likes in three days. The revival coincided with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, which gave it a natural hook.

The 2018 wave brought new creativity. A user named Richard balanced his phone on a violin he appeared to be playing while standing on a skateboard lodged inside a cabinet. One participant brought a full-sized horse into frame. TIME, BuzzFeed, Mashable, and The Daily Dot all ran coverage of the comeback.

How to Use This Meme

The format is straightforward:

1

Go to a bathroom with a mirror

2

Set up a scene. This typically means props (household appliances, sports equipment, stuffed animals, musical instruments) and/or a physically challenging pose (hanging from a door, balancing on furniture, doing a handstand)

3

Take a mirror selfie capturing the whole setup

4

Post with #SelfieOlympics

Cultural Impact

The Selfie Olympics arrived at the peak of selfie culture. "Selfie" had just been named the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year in November 2013, and the trend gave ordinary people a way to compete with celebrities who had been dominating the selfie conversation. NBC News noted that the trend may have been a response to high-profile selfies from Pope Francis, Barack Obama, and even the Mars Rover.

Major outlets including WIRED, TIME, NBC News, Mashable, and multiple BuzzFeed features covered the trend. WIRED profiled individual participants and tracked the two main creative approaches that emerged. The 2018 revival proved the format had lasting appeal, with TIME calling it a "hilarious comeback" timed to the Winter Games.

Urban Dictionary defined the Selfie Olympics as "an ongoing competition to take the most original and awe-inspiring selfie," noting the use of "various props, costumes, furniture, and an impressive array of poses".

Fun Facts

The @SelfyOlympics account changed its name to @SelfyGames just four days after launching, likely to avoid trademark issues with the Olympic brand.

Sean Huang, one of the most-shared 2014 participants, made his entry while his parents were at work. They later found out their semi-naked son holding a prop gun was circulating the internet.

BuzzFeed's scored roundup awarded a perfect 10 to a pet selfie entry, stating "pet selfies always get 10s".

The 2018 revival post by @Bradleysanborn featured him cooking pancakes in his bathroom.

One 2014 entry featured someone who appeared to have set themselves on fire for the photo.

Frequently Asked Questions

Selfie Olympics

2013Photo faddead

Also known as: Trick Shot Selfie · #And1SelfieLeague · #TrickShotSelfies · The Selfie Game

Selfie Olympics is a 2013 photo fad where Twitter users took bathroom mirror selfies while striking difficult poses with absurd props.

Selfie Olympics is a photo fad where participants take mirror-shot selfies in bathrooms while striking physically difficult poses or surrounding themselves with absurd props. The trend kicked off in late 2013 on Twitter and became the first major meme of 2014 when the hashtag #SelfieOlympics went viral. It saw a notable revival during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

photo fad memes challenge memes selfie memes hashtag memes

Overview

The Selfie Olympics follow a simple formula: stand in front of a bathroom mirror, add as many ridiculous elements as possible, and snap a selfie. Entries range from people contorting into gymnastic poses on door frames and sinks to cramming entire living rooms worth of furniture into the bathroom. The competition aspect is informal. There are no judges, no prizes, and no organization beyond the hashtag. Twitter users simply try to one-up each other with increasingly elaborate or physically demanding setups.

Two main approaches emerged over time. One school focuses on athletic feats: climbing doors, balancing upside down, or performing yoga poses while somehow still holding the phone. The other approach leans into maximum absurdity, stuffing the bathroom with random household objects like toasters, Christmas trees, ball pits, and kayaks.

On November 21, 2013, FreeOnSmash blogger Rock Burgundy tweeted a photograph of a young man taking a mirror selfie while holding his phone with both hands to the side of his head. Burgundy coined the hashtags #TrickShotSelfies and #AND1SelfieLeague, framing the selfie as a basketball-style trick shot.

The concept sat relatively quiet for about a month before exploding on Christmas Day. On the morning of December 25, 2013, Twitter user YungTumbleweed shared a selfie showing a man in a climbing position around a door frame. That tweet pulled in more than 2,300 retweets and 1,600 favorites in its first week. Later the same day, user LittleMissSunshine posted another entry showing someone balanced on top of a bathroom sink, pushing against the wall for support.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter
Key People
Rock Burgundy, Bradley Sanborn
Date
2013

On November 21, 2013, FreeOnSmash blogger Rock Burgundy tweeted a photograph of a young man taking a mirror selfie while holding his phone with both hands to the side of his head. Burgundy coined the hashtags #TrickShotSelfies and #AND1SelfieLeague, framing the selfie as a basketball-style trick shot.

The concept sat relatively quiet for about a month before exploding on Christmas Day. On the morning of December 25, 2013, Twitter user YungTumbleweed shared a selfie showing a man in a climbing position around a door frame. That tweet pulled in more than 2,300 retweets and 1,600 favorites in its first week. Later the same day, user LittleMissSunshine posted another entry showing someone balanced on top of a bathroom sink, pushing against the wall for support.

How It Spread

The real tipping point came on January 3, 2014, when the Twitter account @SelfyOlympics launched to curate the best submissions. Within hours, #SelfieOlympics was trending on Twitter. The account had racked up over 90,000 followers by the weekend and changed its username to @SelfyGames four days later on January 7.

WIRED called it the "first big viral meme of 2014" and highlighted the creativity on display. Among the standouts was Garrett Nall, an 18-year-old University of North Texas student who filled his bathroom with his 4-year-old brother's old ball pit, wore a toy fire hat while sitting in it, and had a giant Pikachu doll hold the phone. Sean Huang, a 16-year-old from Dallas, saw the trend at 3 a.m. and spent the next day stuffing his bathroom with a toaster, his Christmas tree, a bike, a guitar, and a gun before snapping a self-timer shot from the bathtub.

NBC News covered the trend with a tongue-in-cheek guide on "how to win," noting that entries ranged from Photoshopped optical illusions to pop culture references to a cancer patient flipping off the camera from a hospital bed. BuzzFeed published a scored rundown of 22 entries, awarding points for details like dental hygiene products visible on the sink and docking points for using an iPad instead of a phone.

The trend died down by late January 2014, but returned four years later. On February 18, 2018, Twitter user @Bradleysanborn posted a series of mirror selfies including one of himself riding a bicycle in the bathtub with a bag of golf clubs over his shoulder. His tweet read "we're bringing back the #selfieolympics in 2018" and pulled 67,000 retweets and 187,000 likes in three days. The revival coincided with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, which gave it a natural hook.

The 2018 wave brought new creativity. A user named Richard balanced his phone on a violin he appeared to be playing while standing on a skateboard lodged inside a cabinet. One participant brought a full-sized horse into frame. TIME, BuzzFeed, Mashable, and The Daily Dot all ran coverage of the comeback.

How to Use This Meme

The format is straightforward:

1

Go to a bathroom with a mirror

2

Set up a scene. This typically means props (household appliances, sports equipment, stuffed animals, musical instruments) and/or a physically challenging pose (hanging from a door, balancing on furniture, doing a handstand)

3

Take a mirror selfie capturing the whole setup

4

Post with #SelfieOlympics

Cultural Impact

The Selfie Olympics arrived at the peak of selfie culture. "Selfie" had just been named the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year in November 2013, and the trend gave ordinary people a way to compete with celebrities who had been dominating the selfie conversation. NBC News noted that the trend may have been a response to high-profile selfies from Pope Francis, Barack Obama, and even the Mars Rover.

Major outlets including WIRED, TIME, NBC News, Mashable, and multiple BuzzFeed features covered the trend. WIRED profiled individual participants and tracked the two main creative approaches that emerged. The 2018 revival proved the format had lasting appeal, with TIME calling it a "hilarious comeback" timed to the Winter Games.

Urban Dictionary defined the Selfie Olympics as "an ongoing competition to take the most original and awe-inspiring selfie," noting the use of "various props, costumes, furniture, and an impressive array of poses".

Fun Facts

The @SelfyOlympics account changed its name to @SelfyGames just four days after launching, likely to avoid trademark issues with the Olympic brand.

Sean Huang, one of the most-shared 2014 participants, made his entry while his parents were at work. They later found out their semi-naked son holding a prop gun was circulating the internet.

BuzzFeed's scored roundup awarded a perfect 10 to a pet selfie entry, stating "pet selfies always get 10s".

The 2018 revival post by @Bradleysanborn featured him cooking pancakes in his bathroom.

One 2014 entry featured someone who appeared to have set themselves on fire for the photo.

Frequently Asked Questions