In 2012, Redditors made a hobby out of plucking strangers from obscurity and assigning them punchlines.

It was the golden age of Advice Animal memes, when a well-timed smirk or ill-fitting hat could define your internet legacy.

Most of these one-frame celebrities ended up as cautionary tales. Some, like Bad Luck Brian, tried to spin their brief humiliation into profit, while others just went underground.

But then there was Zeddie Watkins Little, the "Ridiculously Photogenic Guy," who went viral just for looking absurdly attractive mid-run. For once, Reddit didn't try to ruin someone's year.

Here's what became of the picturesque man who enamored much of the internet 13 years ago.

What Is The 'Ridiculously Photogenic Guy' Photo And How Did It First Go Viral?

On March 31st, 2012, Will King, a Charleston-based computer programmer and amateur photographer, snapped hundreds of photos of damp strangers in varying stages of distress on the occasion of the Cooper River Bridge Run, a local 10K marathon. He cut the batch down to about 100, uploading them to his Flickr account under the name @King_of_Games.

The photos were titled systematically: "35th Annual Cooper River Bridge Run – 26," "-27," and so on. But photo number 28 broke formation. It was called "Mr. Ridiculously Photogenic Guy."

The subject was a grinning guy in a purple shirt, captured mid-stride. He was surrounded by more haggard runners and still somehow looked like the "after" photo in a men's skincare commercial. King had previously posted the image to Facebook, where a friend coined the flattering nickname.

When King shared it to Reddit's /r/pics subreddit on April 3rd with the caption, "My friend calls him 'Mr Ridiculously Photogenic Guy,'" the response was immediate.

One commenter marveled, "He looks like a stock photo!" Another declared, "I'm a guy, and I have an unmanageable desire to see more of him." The image has since been viewed over 5.6 million times on Flickr alone, give or take a few thirst-driven reloads.

Eventually, a local Charleston newspaper tracked down the man behind the smile: Zeddie Watkins Little, 25, a College of Charleston alum living in New York and working in music PR. He later explained the photo was taken just after he waved at a friend during the race.

The temperature was brutal, the humidity was sweltering, and he didn't exactly sail through the race to win first place. But where others looked close to heat-stroke, the Ridiculously Photogenic Guy happened to look airbrushed and charismatic.

Who Is The Ridiculously Photogenic Guy, And How Did People React To His Photo?

At the time the photo was taken, Zeddie Watkins Little was living in New York, bartending at a restaurant and handling PR and web content for a music venue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

He'd studied media communications at the College of Charleston and had been in town to visit family and participate in the marathon. He went by Watkins in real life, but most people online came to know him as Zeddie Little.

A week or so after the photo went viral, Little fielded questions in a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread (or AMA) on April 16th, 2012. He was polite, bashful, and conspicuously trying to steer attention toward the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health, the nonprofit sponsoring his upcoming NYC Marathon run.

Reddit, unsurprisingly, wasn't particularly interested in his cardio goals. The thread kept crashing from traffic, and people started joking that Zeddie Little had broken the site just by smiling at it.

The AMA was hot off the heels of the internet editing Little into every popular meme at the time, with one user editing his face onto every other runner in the original image. Another Redditor showed Zeddie Little sprinting away from Hitchcock's crop-duster in North by Northwest — and that's not counting the countless Impact font memes that framed Zeddie Little with breathless declarations like, "Runs a marathon / Wins my heart."

Did Zeddie Little Ever Cash In On Being The 'Ridiculously Photogenic Guy'?

Like many other early meme stars, Zeddie Little flirted with the idea of pioneering a meme-to-model pipeline, but ultimately decided against turning his smile into a side hustle.

In his AMA, he said he'd consider acting or modeling gigs and even got some offers from the brand Brooks Running, whose gear he wore in the photo. The opportunity eventually fizzled out, but Little was happy to report that he still scored a bunch of free running gear instead.

His only documented brush with another meme came at Disneyland, where he took a photo with Grumpy Cat, who Zeddie says was actively peeing during their interaction. This was as glamorous as things got for him.

Years later, the only time his internet fame resurfaced meaningfully was when his younger brother Grayson auditioned for American Idol in 2019, and the producers flagged his meme status during the show's background checks.

Grayson eventually advanced to Hollywood Week before returning to his regularly scheduled country music career, split between Charleston and New York.

What Did Zeddie Little Think About His Fame At The Time?

Ten days after Reddit crowned him internet heartthrob, Zeddie Little sat down with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America, flanked by opportune photographer Will King.

He smiled (because, of course, he did) and said he felt honored by the world's well wishes, given that the internet does have a tendency to lean toward rudeness when it came to memes.

I really dont know, but I kinda feel honored to be part of a joke that's in good spirit because sometimes the Internet can be a little vicious or jokes can get bent the wrong way. But these are all kinda, for the most part, positive. It's funny that everybody is kinda taking like to it. It's, I guess, the most flattering way to get spread across the Internet."

Even Little knew, with his peripheral internet knowledge, that it's typically not good news when you go viral online. As he explained in his AMA, "I got a call from Redditor friends saying I was number one on Reddit, so I assumed whatever it was was really bad. When I finally saw the photo, I laughed for about an hour. It was just surreal. It's still surreal."

Zeddie Little was indeed lucky. Of all the internet memes featuring random people that went viral in the early 2010s, people were kindest to him. He seemingly never got ridiculed, and the memes he featured in were never quite mean-spirited.

He also kept his digital footprint small, which helped. The only person oversharing was his dad, a Charleston nonprofit head who gladly filled in the blanks for reporters before Little gently asked him to zip it. Fame, it turns out, runs in the family, but media training does not.

What Has Zeddie Little Been Up To Since His Viral Fame, And Where Can I Find Him Today?

Back when Know Your Meme last interviewed him in 2020, Zeddie Little was managing a cocktail bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, getting into community organizing and listening to enough Chapo Trap House that he had started to muse over a career in local politics.

But lately, he's still pursuing a vibrant career in the hospitality industry. Zeddie's been working at a restaurant in the neighbourhood of Greenpoint, where he also happens to stay, with an April 2025 post showing him (off to the left) and his team foraging for greens to include in their seasonal menu.

Zeddie still keeps a low profile online and has his Instagram @zlittle5 set to private.

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For the full history of Ridiculously Photogenic Guy, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information. To see the rest of our "Where Are They Now" series, you can find them all here. Stay tuned for next week's editorial!

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