# TIME's Virtual Reality Magazine Cover
When TIME magazine's August 2015 cover showed Oculus founder Palmer Luckey mid-leap with a Rift headset strapped to his face, the awkward pose detonated into a same-day Photoshop battle. Within hours the cutout was riding horses, sitting on toilets, and sinking with the Titanic, spawning one of 2015's most prolific cover-remix memes.
## Origin
TIME unveiled the cover for its upcoming virtual reality issue on August 6, 2015, and the official @TIME account tweeted an animated version of it the same morning[1]. The pose, Luckey leaping barefoot in jeans with the Rift headset over his eyes, drew immediate mockery for looking like a crude cutout.
Within hours, Twitter user Ryan Evans (@rje) posted the earliest widely shared edit, pasting the Luckey cutout onto a horse galloping across an open field[4]. The tweet pulled over 200 retweets inside 24 hours and set the template for the Photoshop wave that followed[5].
- **Platform:** TIME magazine / Twitter and Reddit (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2015
## Overview
The format lifts the Luckey cutout, arms thrown wide and bare feet dangling, out of the TIME layout and drops it into completely unrelated images[1]. Because the original pose already looks like a floating green-screen composite, edits that place him in a field with a horse, inside a sinking Titanic, or seated on a toilet read as plausible rather than crude[2].
Most edits keep the TIME masthead and the "Why virtual reality is about to change your world" headline intact, so the joke lands on the mismatch between a serious cover layout and whatever chaos the editor pasted behind it[3]. The flood of versions arrived fast enough that TIME itself published a roundup of its 37 favorites the same evening[5].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is TIME's Virtual Reality Magazine Cover?
It is the August 2015 TIME cover of Oculus founder Palmer Luckey in a Rift headset, which was photoshopped by the internet into unrelated scenes[1].
### Where did TIME's Virtual Reality Magazine Cover come from?
TIME revealed the cover on August 6, 2015, and the first widely shared edit came from Twitter user Ryan Evans (@rje), who pasted Luckey onto a galloping horse[4].
### What does TIME's Virtual Reality Magazine Cover mean?
The joke works because Luckey's floating pose looks like a bad cutout, so sticking him into any backdrop keeps the TIME masthead but turns the serious framing absurd[2].
### How do you use TIME's Virtual Reality Magazine Cover?
Keep the TIME layout and headline, swap the background for something ridiculous like Titanic or a toilet, as @PellyNV and Redditor Tidus5005 did[7][8].
### Is TIME's Virtual Reality Magazine Cover still popular?
The meme peaked in August 2015 and is now a classic Photoshop-battle moment covered by Forbes, TechCrunch, and The Daily Dot at the time[9][10][2].
## References
1. [http://time.com/3987059/in-the-latest-issue-41/]()
2. [http://www.dailydot.com/technology/time-magazine-oculus-photoshop/]()
3. [https://www.reddit.com/r/photoshopbattles/comments/3g0gio/psbattle_the_august_cover_of_time_magazine/]()
4. [https://twitter.com/rje/status/629354099021058048]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/times-virtual-reality-magazine-cover]()
6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/CrappyDesign/comments/3g1dwo/palmer_luckey_oculus_founders_time_magazine_cover/]()
7. [https://twitter.com/PellyNV/status/629383076917829634]()
8. [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/3g4b5p/i_fixed_this_weeks_time_magazine_cover/]()
9. [http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/08/06/debate-rages-over-whether-or-not-times-oculus-cover-has-killed-vr/]()
10. [http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/06/did-virtual-reality-just-have-its-google-glass-shower-moment/]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/times-virtual-reality-magazine-cover
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