The Vince McMahon meme originates from the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Smackdown which is a professional wrestling television program.
The episode which was aired on April 11, 2002, involves Vince McMahon (Chairman and CEO) interviewing candidates for his personal assistant in the ring. After a couple of interviewees, WWE wrestler and model Stacy Keibler who was also known as The Legs of WWE appeared in the interview and climbed on top of the announcers’ table and danced sensually. Following the performance, the amazed chairman immediately hired her. The popular use of the Vince McMahon meme is to mock someone’s feelings of ecstasy.
On October 27, 2013, Imgur user/cakenessmonster/ posted a GIF on the platform with the caption “As a bodybuilder, this is what I think happens when Vince Mcmahon looks at me.” For context, Gary Strydom, a well-known bodybuilder, performs his WBF routine, with Vince McMahon providing the reactions in the GIF. Among the WWE fans, it is commonly accepted that Vince adores muscular dudes. Following days, there have been multiple instances and variations of the Strydom-McMahon mashup GIF being shared on Reddit and Imgur. On July 31st 2014 Reddit user u/PanicOnFunkotron/ pointed that it was /u/trimoon who first combined a video titled “Gary Strydom WBF Posing” with the WWE’s chairman’s reaction as it could be hilarious.
On May 5, 2014, the GIF was also aired in one of the episodes of the comedy game show Comedy Central starring Jamie Lee, Jared Logan and Dan St. Germain with the host Chris Hardwick.
