The internet’s “Blinking Guy” is trading his meme fame for miles this weekend.
Drew Scanlon will ride 102 miles across the San Francisco Bay Area on Saturday to raise funds for multiple sclerosis research.
Scanlon said his nearly 10-year cycling mission has raised more than $250,000 for the disease, inspired by friends affected by MS.
Even though Scanlon has one of the most recognizable faces globally, he mentioned that he rarely gets identified when out in public. His popularity doesn’t come from any online content he has created but from a fundamental human action: blinking. This meme began during his time at the video game website Giant Bomb. During a livestream, a co-worker made a joke, and Scanlon’s blinked reaction was captured.
“I have no idea who first clipped it or why it was done,” Scanlon remarked during a phone interview with NBC News on Friday, just a day before participating in the Waves to Wind 2025 charity bike event in the Bay Area.
“It was actually about a four-year gap between when the video actually aired and [when the] meme took off.”
Saying the meme “exploded” might be putting it mildly. One particular version of Scanlon’s blinking face has been viewed over 6 billion times on Giphy, making frequent appearances in chat rooms, text messages, and on social media. “It can be a bit overwhelming when something like this happens,” he expressed.
On the road, Scanlon is more known as “the guy who raises all that meme money” for MS, he said.
With his charity cycling team, the Big El West, Scanlon has been concentrating on bringing attention and raising funds for neurological conditions affecting 2.8 million people worldwide. According to the National Institutes of Health, women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with MS, which can lead to vision issues, weakness, and trouble walking.
“It’s nice to have found this outlet, and it’s great to see that it continues to resonate with people,” Scanlon said.
