Uh-oh! Kevin James is stuck in his Shrugging Kevin James meme pose. At least, that was the joke during last night’s bit with Jimmy Fallon. The Tonight Show host also found himself the victim of a viral meme that turns out to be an actual virus, with shuffling zombie hordes infected by the James sickness.
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Thank god it was only a meme dream. But that doesn’t mean the King of Queens star doesn’t have recurring nightmares about the shrug. “It spawned a million memes!” gushed Fallon, asking James if he remembered shooting the now-iconic photo.
Oh yeah, James responded. “When you first get a sitcom, you just listen to anybody. You’re just so happy to be there,” he told Fallon. “The photographer was telling me to do goofy things. He was like, ‘Smile! Now like you’re sexy! Now like you’re shy!’”
James recalled getting into an odd pose, thinking “What the hell am I doing?” He asked the photographer to please bury that particularly awkward photo.
“Yeah, no worries,” promised the photographer. “That won’t come back.” Cut to 25 years and a few thousand memes later.
Fallon shared some of his favorite memes featuring the photo. The first was captioned, “When I cook for new people and somebody say, ‘Damn you made this?!’”
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Next up, the same goofy James photo with the caption, “me when my friend posts a screenshot of our text messages on their story so everyone can see how funny i am.”
Broadway Video
Fallon’s favorite meme was a prank played by the University of Maryland football team. When its opponent’s field goal kicker was lining up to attempt a crucial score, the university’s scoreboard operator inflicted some psychological warfare with Monstrous Shrugging Kevin James on the big screen directly behind the goalposts.
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“Good job, Maryland!” shouted Fallon.
What are the odds of James doing another King of Queens photoshoot in the future? Somewhere between none and zero, at least according to an interview he did with Today earlier this week while promoting his new comedy special, Irregardless. That’s because James refuses to consider a King of Queens reboot. “You cannot do it because of Jerry,” he explained.
James’ sitcom co-star, Jerry Stiller, passed away in 2020 at the age of 92. “How do you do that without Jerry?” James concluded. “He was amazing.”