# Tron Guy Tron Guy is Jay Maynard, an American computer programmer who built a homemade electroluminescent costume based on the 1982 sci-fi film Tron and became a mid-2000s internet celebrity after posting photos of the suit to Slashdot in April 2004. ## Overview Tron Guy is the internet nickname for Jay Maynard, a computer programmer whose homemade Tron costume made him one of the earliest recognizable nerd icons of the mid-2000s web[1]. The suit is a skintight spandex bodysuit painted with the neon circuit patterns from Disney's 1982 sci-fi film Tron, wired with electroluminescent panels that glow blue in a dark room[5]. Maynard is bald, bearded, and has a rotund build, and the visual gap between the sleek Tron aesthetic and his everyday appearance is what pushed the photos across tech forums in the first place[2]. He leaned into the nickname, kept wearing the suit at conventions, and later used the platform to speak publicly about network neutrality[5]. ## How It Spread The Slashdot thread quickly jumped to BoingBoing, which ran a "Tales of a Tron Tailor" writeup on April 26, 2004[2], along with FARK, AnandTech, and CG Talk[5]. Maynard made his mainstream debut in early May 2004 on Jimmy Kimmel Live[5]. He guest-starred in the 2006 "We Are The Web" music video alongside Leslie Hall and Peter Pan cosplayer Randy Constan to advocate for net neutrality[5]. South Park parodied him in the Season 12 episode "Canada on Strike" on April 2, 2008, grouping him with Numa Numa Guy, Star Wars Kid, and Tay Zonday[5]. On October 8, 2009, he appeared in a Web Redemption segment on Daniel Tosh's Tosh.0 to reflect on his internet fame[5]. When Disney released Tron: Legacy in December 2010, Maynard reviewed the sequel for Wired and criticized the studio's handling of the original film's fanbase[3]. TMZ soon reported that a local movie theater refused him entry for insisting on wearing the suit to the screening[4]. In June 2011, Maynard auditioned for America's Got Talent, was harshly criticized by the judges, and was booed off the stage[6]. A Duck Brand duct tape commercial released on August 3, 2011 later imagined Tron light cycles racing around inside Maynard's head[7]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Tron Guy? Tron Guy is Jay Maynard, an American programmer known for a homemade glowing costume based on the 1982 film Tron[1]. ### Where did Tron Guy come from? Maynard built the suit for Penguicon 2004 in Michigan and posted the photos to Slashdot on April 18, 2004, where the thread went viral[1]. ### What does Tron Guy mean? The nickname is a joke about Maynard, who was widely shared online as an icon of DIY nerd cosplay after his electroluminescent Tron suit hit tech forums like BoingBoing and FARK in April 2004[2]. ### How do you use Tron Guy? Tron Guy is not a template meme but an early-2000s internet celebrity, often referenced in lists of classic nerd-web icons and parodied on South Park's "Canada on Strike" in 2008[5]. ### Is Tron Guy still popular? Tron Guy is a classic 2000s internet figure; Maynard kept the character alive through 2011 with a Wired review of Tron: Legacy, an America's Got Talent audition, and a Duck Brand duct tape commercial[3][7]. ## References 1. [https://slashdot.org/story/04/04/18/1621259/another-fan-made-tron-costume]() 2. [https://boingboing.net/2004/04/26/tales-of-a-tron-tail.html]() 3. [https://www.wired.com/2010/12/tron-guy-reviews-tron-legacy/]() 4. [https://www.tmz.com/2010/12/21/tron-guy-costume-banned-movie-theater-jay-maynard-tron-legacy/]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/tron-guy]() 6. [https://geekologie.com/2011/06/pure-unadulterated-sadness-tron-guy-do.php]() 7. [https://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/08/the_greatest_duck_tape_commercial_of_all_time.php]() 8. [https://gizmodo.com/why-does-america-hate-tron-guy-so-hard-5810918]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/tron-guy Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library