A brief history of the ‘Jason Derulo has fallen down the stairs at the Met Gala’ meme

The Met Gala is one of the most high-profile events in the fashion calendar and although themes, guests and fashion may change over the years, there is one thing you can guarantee to be a constant during a red carpet event - the Jason Derulo falling down the stairs meme resurfacing online.

And like clockwork it’s back once more as the 2021 Met Gala took place last night - but where did the meme come from?

Rest assured, we’ll talk through how the iconic photo taken 10 years ago has remained a consistently strong meme in recent years.

Firstly, no that’s not actually a photo of Jason Derulo falling down the stairs at the Met Gala.

While the internet may be disappointed to learn this infamous photograph of a man falling down a set of stairs is not the “Whatcha Say” singer, we imagine Derulo is thankful he hasn’t taken a tumble like that himself.

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The white tux man in the photo is not Derulo but is in fact just a random man who attempted to gatecrash the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. But fell headfirst down the stairs as security attempted to apprehend and him on the red carpet, according to Know Your Meme.

It took place before a ceremony in honour of French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and the screening of The Beaver.

So, how did Jason Derulo become associated with the photo?

The power of the internet, that’s how.

May 4th 2015 was the fateful day the meme was born, when a since-deleted tweet, Twitter user @dashuasofjack posted the photograph with the caption, “Jason Derulo just fell at #MetGala. LMAO.”

Although the original tweet has been deleted, retweets can still be seen on people’s accounts six years on.

The tweet then began to blow up - it became so big at the time that HuffPost had to debunk the meme.

It even reached Derulo himself, who has never attended the Met Gala. But he took the joke all in good jest and even posted the picture on his own Instagram with the caption: “Lmao I’m at rehearsal in LA. Fuq ya’ll! Lol.”

Although the Instagram post has since been deleted, the singer tweeted out a link to it with the photo caption.

Within the same month, he addressed the meme in an interview with Audacy News, in the YouTube video, he said: “I was actually in rehearsals in L.A. The Met Gala was actually in New York... and I just thought it was hilarious.”

Though the rumours left his family members concerned, as he explained: “My grandmother, she’s 93-years-old, she called me. She’s like ‘Are you alright? I heard you fell down the stairs.’

“I was like ‘Grandma, I’m good. I ain’t fall down no stairs,’” he laughed.

The photo has since re-emerged during the Oscars, Golden Globes, and the Met Gala (again) and it looks like it’s here to stay.

Like the previous six years, the 2021 Met Gala had an abundance of Jason Derulo memes and the internet wouldn’t have it any other way.

Here are some of the best tweets from this year.

While hilariously, some people are still just discovering that the guy in the photo is not in fact Jason Derulo.

Until the next red carpet event...