# Strutting Leo Strutting Leo is a Photoshop exploitable built from a paparazzi shot of Leonardo DiCaprio grinning as he walked across the Paris set of Inception in August 2009[1]. The cutout took off a year later after Newgrounds and Reddit users started dropping the actor into scenes from Lord of the Rings, video games and historical photos, and it became one of the defining celebrity Photoshop templates of 2010[2][3]. ## Origin The source photograph was taken during location shooting for Christopher Nolan's Inception in Paris. On August 19th, 2009, the entertainment blog Celebrity-Gossip ran a gallery titled "Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page: Filming in Paris" that included the strutting frame[1]. The image sat dormant for a year before editors seized it. On August 28th, 2010, a Newgrounds user opened a forum thread called "Photoshop Leonardo DiCaprio" with a transparent PNG cutout attached, giving remixers a ready-made asset to drop into new backgrounds[2]. The next day, Redditor WolfTweak posted "Simple into Mordor" to r/pics, which superimposed the cutout into scenes from The Lord of the Rings[4]. - **Platform:** Newgrounds / Reddit (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2010 ## Overview The template is a single paparazzi frame: DiCaprio in a dark peacoat, arms swinging, mid-stride with a giant grin on his face while walking toward the camera[1]. Editors cut the actor out on a transparent background and paste him into unrelated backdrops, letting the cheerful body language carry the joke against whatever chaos surrounds him[2]. Common edits drop Leo into fantasy scenes, disaster photos, video games and historical footage, playing the same beat that powered Disaster Girl and Prancing Cera: a person who looks weirdly delighted to be somewhere they should not be[3]. The Chive's early roundup pinned the appeal on that mismatch, calling the strut the load-bearing element that made the format work no matter where he ended up[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Strutting Leo? Strutting Leo is a Photoshop exploitable that drops a cutout of Leonardo DiCaprio, taken from a paparazzi shot on the Inception set, into unrelated backdrops for comic effect[2]. ### Where did Strutting Leo come from? The source photo was published by the Celebrity-Gossip blog on August 19th, 2009 in an Inception filming gallery, and a Newgrounds thread turned it into an exploitable template on August 28th, 2010[1][2]. ### What does Strutting Leo mean? The joke rides on DiCaprio's oversized grin and confident stride, which read as absurdly cheerful once he is inserted into disasters, battle scenes or fantasy worlds where he does not belong[3]. ### How do you use Strutting Leo? Editors typically paste the transparent PNG cutout of DiCaprio into an unrelated image, keeping his walk cycle intact so the punchline is the mismatch between his mood and the setting[2]. ### Is Strutting Leo still popular? The meme peaked in late 2010 with a Washington Post write-up and a Facebook page that hit over 9,200 likes by August 2012, and it is now treated as a classic of the early Photoshop-meme era[2]. ## References 1. [http://celebrity-gossip.net/celebrities/hollywood/leonardo-dicaprio-and-ellen-page-filming-in-paris-216923]() 2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/strutting-leo]() 3. [https://thechive.com/2010/09/01/leo-strutting-gets-the-photoshop-treatment-64-photos/]() 4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/d714x/simple_into_mordor/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/strutting-leo Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library