About
Laughing Tom Cruise refers to a series of photoshopped images and remix videos based on a press photograph of the famous American actor laughing manically during his on-stage appearance as a guest speaker at a Yahoo! conference in early 2006.
Origin
On March 26th, 2006, Flickr[1] user Maximum Mitch uploaded a photo of Tom Cruise manically laughing during a conference at the Yahoo! headquarters[7]. As of October 2014, the photo has gained over 5,000 views.
Spread
On January 16th, 2008, YouTuber Suburban Hicks[6] uploaded a video titled “Tom Cruise Maniac Laugh (REMIX)” which features a clip of Tom Cruise manically laughing taken from an interview with Cruise produced by the Church of Scientology, which was leaked to YouTube the same month, the same interview the church tried to have removed, sparking Project Chanology. As of October 2014, the remix has gained over 250,000 views.
On April 20th, 2008, Funny or Die[10] published a video titled "The Ultimate “Laughing Tom Cruise” Viral" which featured the Scientology interview clip mixed in with footage of other people laughing manically, seemingly in response to Cruise. As of October 2014, the video has gained over 3,000 views.
On July 13th, 2011, Reaction Face[11] published a photo of Cruise laughing.
On December 15th, 2012, MemeGenerator[12] created a page of Tom Cruise Laughing macros.
On December 11th, 2012, the Facebook[8] community page “Tom Cruise Laughing” was created, as of October 2014, the page has gained over 1,000 notes. On March 18th, 2013, the Tumblr blog tomcruiselaughing[9] was created.
Notable Examples
Parodies
Macros
External References
[1]Flickr – The famous Cruise laugh
[2]Meme Generator – Tom Cruise Laugh
[3]Tumblr – Tom Cruise laughing
[4]Tumblr – Anime Themed Tom Cruise laughing memes
[5]Wikia – Laughing Tom
[6]YouTube – Suburban Hicks
[7]Just Jared – Tom Cruise Yahoo
[8]Facebook – Tom Cruise Laughing
[9]Tumblr – tomcruiselaughing
[10]Funny or Die – The Ultimate “Laughing Tom Cruise” Viral
[11]Reaction Face – Tom Cruise Laughing
[12]Meme Generator – Tom Cruise Laughing