Sad Keanu Meets Humorless Feminist

Keanu Reeves, Rebel Loiterer
I know I'm the Most Humorless Feminist in all of Nofunnington, but I really despise the Sad Keanu meme. If you're not familiar with it, you can click the link to read about it in detail, but here's the brief synopsis: Photos of Keanu Reeves looking sad are Photoshopped for maximum hilarity (examples). And, yeah, it's just as stupid as it sounds.

But my issue isn't that it's stupid. Stupid can be very, very fun. My issue is that every time the Sad Keanu meme has more life breathed into it with another round of fuckery, I can't help but think: You know, maybe there are so many pictures of him looking sad because he's sad.

He's rather famously lost a close friend and colleague to a drug overdose, followed several years later by the stillborn birth of his daughter, followed several years later by the death of his daughter's mother, and his sister and best friend has been battling leukemia for more than a decade. His biological father abandoned him when he was three, and they've never reconnected, as his dad's spent time in and out of prison on drug charges.

That would make me sad, I think.

Today, BuzzFeed features, as part of the "hilarious" Sad Keanu meme, The 12 Most Depressing Keanu Reeves Quotes. Number Two is "Grief changes shape, but it never ends." Number Six is "When the people you love are gone, you're alone."

Oh, my aching sides.

I've always really liked Keanu Reeves—long-time Shakers will no doubt remember me futilely defending him in a many an "overrated/bad actors" thread, lol—and I have a sort of soft spot for him. I hope he finds the Sad Keany meme funny; if it were about me, I can imagine it finding it amusing in a way I don't find it amusing when about someone else.

But what if he doesn't…?

I guess that doesn't matter, or even occur, to the people who are busily Photoshopping pictures of Sad Keanu and posting "hilariously depressing" quotes about the loss he's had in his life.

Fist pump for Summer '10 on the internetz, brah!

Ugh.