Who Is 'Pajama Kid' And What Does His Face Mean? The Classic Meme, Explained

On one fateful day in 2014, a busy mother confused "picture day" with "pajama day" and a boy with a bowl cut found himself staring down a camera lens, decked out in SpongeBob SquarePants pajamas, knowing this situation was highly ridiculous. The pictures found their way to Reddit, where posters fell in love with the boy's sassy expression and catapulted him into meme fame as arguably one of the final Advice Animal formats. Let's explain how this all went down.

Where Did The Pajama Kid Meme Come From?

The pajama kid image was first posted in April of 2014 on Reddit's /r/funny by a user who said it was someone he knew who had accidentally worn pajamas to school picture day. The post became wildly popular on the subreddit, with users creating edits of the kid and his ambiguous facial expression.

Pajama Kid joined a group of memes that revolve around children or other people making memorably odd facial expressions. He was edited into pictures alongside Side Eyeing Chloe and entertained many who couldn't quite tell what he was feeling or thinking, or could maybe tell all too well what was on his mind.

Who Is The Pajama Kid?

It is unknown exactly who Pajama Kid is, and that might be for the best. He's probably a member of Generation Z and just about an adult by now. Maybe being a Reddit meme in 2014 is the fun fact he shares about himself during icebreaker activities, or maybe it's a secret he only tells to his closest confidantes. The real people behind big memes have often found it strange or difficult to deal with the rush of fame and attention, as the recent experience of Hawk Tuah Girl shows.

How Do People Post The Pajama Kid Meme?

The Pajama Kid meme is frequently posted as a Photoshop remix, with users placing the kid's face and body into new situations. But it was also deployed in an Advice Animal image macro style, towards the tail end of that meme tradition's golden age. Impact font captions on the top and the bottom of the image describe what might have happened to Pajama Boy to cause him to make the face he makes.

For the full history of Pajama Kid, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's entry for even more information.