For the last time, this meme is of Robert Redford, not Zach Galifianakis
On the legendary actor’s birthday, we must, once again, give credit to Robert Redford and Jeremiah Johnson for his incredible meme
Aux Features Zach Galifianakis
Since roughly 2012, the internet’s Mandela Effect has led to a grave injustice. No, we’re not talking about Sinbad’s kids begging people to crack open the IMDB and confirm that their dad did not star in a movie called Shazam. Nor are we wading into the parallel universe of the Berenstain Bears. Rather, we’re once again here to remind you that the bearded man from the nod of approval meme is not Hangover-star Zach Galifianakis. It’s Robert Redford.
As nice as it must be for Galifianakis to be repeatedly mistaken for Redford, the issue could be attributed to a lack of movie stars with long hair, rosy cheeks, and beards. But even today, some 50 years after the meme’s source was released, people still think that the meme is of Galifianakis. We want to set the record straight for the last time.
The meme comes from the 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford and directed by Sydney Pollack (Tootsie, The Firm). In it, Redford plays a mountain man named Jeremiah Johnson, who moves into the woods and must prove himself to the Crow Native American tribe. This is not an obscure movie or anything. It was based, in part, on a real person—a New Jersey native named John “Liver-Eating” Johnson. His history is horrific. After the real-life Johnson’s wife was allegedly murdered by Crow tribal members, he reportedly went on a murderous revenge spree against the tribe. He was also supposed to have eaten the livers of his victims (hence the name) and ate the leg of a prison guard that was holding him captive. Johnson eventually made peace with the tribe and died in 1900. 70 years later, after the movie’s release and success, Johnson’s remains in California were dug up and moved to Wyoming, where they gave him a statue. It’s a truly American story in the worst way.
Anyway, back to the meme. The mistake isn’t hard to understand. Galifianakis’ look in his 2009 breakout The Hangover is very similar to Johnson’s. He’s got the beard and the hair, and of course, there’s that scene in Johnson where the mountain man, occasionally referred to as “Liver-Eating,” wears a baby harness on his chest and puts sunglasses on the baby. We kid. In fact, it was in the midst of America’s brief spell of Hangover-fever, when we demanded a whole trilogy of movies about “the Wolfpack,” that the GIF started popping up.
Look, we know to some, like the “extremely online” set, this is old news. Others might remember a few years ago, the last time this revelation made the rounds. But it clearly wasn’t enough. So happy birthday, Robert Redford. On this day, we give back to you, the one true nod of approval.
Correction: An earlier version of this article featured a misspelling of Zach Galifianakis’ name. We regret
the error.
130 Comments
Holy cats! For years I was telling people that was Grizzly Adams. I’m so dumb.
You think that’s bad? I was telling people it was Cousin Itt.
That is also who I thought it was. I am gob-smacked that not only did I not recognize it as Robert Redford… I have never heard of this movie before.For the record, I was born in 1985. I definitely feel like I should have at least heard of the thing.(Still, at least I was never dumb enough to think this grainy, obviously-shot-in-the-70’s footage could possibly be of Galifiniakas.)
In a way, you aren’t far off. While Grizzly Adams, like Jeremiah Johnson, was loosely based on a real person (although a different real person), the 1974 movie Grizzly Adams (and the subsequent TV series) were made to cash in on the success of 1972’s Jeremiah Johnson, and the movie was made at a fraction of the cost of the Redford one ($125K vs $3M)
I had no idea. I was so confident the meme was Dan Haggerty that I was arrogant about it. I told millennials in my office, “You don’t know Grizzly Adams?? He’s the nodding guy with the beard!” I feel like a dope.
Counterpoint: That’s clearly Zach Galifianakis.
TBH I’m surprised no one’s done a deepfake version yet.
If anyone can bring themselves to care that much about Zach Galinifillankakalis…
Curveball: That is the deepfake.
Kids these days…
It’s actually Nick Offerman.
Counter-counterpoint: It’s Jason Alexander in a wig.
Counter Counterpoint , I think it may actually be me.
Sorry, still not convinced.
All I got from this is that Zach Galifianakis is a cannibal.
“I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chiaaaanti.”
-Zach “Liver-Eating” Galifianakis
So, do we cancel him or…?
I’ve already started on the statue to him and I hate to see it go to waste.
Sounds like a good way to tempt him to go on a killing spree, just let him do his own thang
Who? WHat? Who would think that’s Zach?What is happening? Am I oldening?
It’s probably because that chubby bearded man looks identical to Zach Galifianakis, and nothing at all like this. It’s not hard.
Jeremiah Johnson didn’t even look that much like how Redford looked at the time (which was pretty much like the modern photo you showed, but with fewer wrinkles).
Jeremiah Johnson didn’t even look that much like how Redford looked at the time
Exactly. What’s with all these “how could anyone not know” comments? That one role is literally, visually dissimilar to his entire catalogue in existence, young or old.
I concur. When I think of Redford, these are the three looks I immediately think of:The Sting (1973):The Natural (1984):All the President’s Men (1976):So I’ll have to issue a sorry-not-sorry for not recognizing that it was Redford in the GIF.
Meet joe black is really underrated, imho.
Especially with the expression, Redford in that still from The Sting looks really Brad Pitt-like, if you want to inspire another misidentification meme.
It just occurred to me that people who are aghast that people don’t recognize Redford in the GIF seem to be people who are familiar with that film, specifically. So they’re basing their recognition on seeing him in the entirety of the film rather than that one specific, seconds-long clip.I haven’t seen it, but it seems likely that if you watch the whole thing you’d think “well obviously that’s Robert Redford” even if you weren’t aware he was the star going in, not just from his face but also his mannerisms and voice.
Neither am I.
The mistake isn’t hard to understand.Is there some kind of mass, contagious face-blindness disease going on? It is clearly Robert Redford. I didn’t even know mistaking it for Galifianakis was possible, let alone a common thing.
I’m with you on this, especially since this is a site that takes movies seriously. Honestly rather than just linking to it at the end, this should have just been “Let’s revisit the facepalm Splinter article” with highlights from the comments.
Wow, that nice blank after “facepalm” was supposed to be a link to the Splinter article.https://splinternews.com/did-you-know-the-nodding-meme-guy-is-robert-freakin-red-1836221746
F in the chat for Splinter
Maybe a sizable contingent of the AV Club’s readership is made up of my pop-culture illiterate aunt?
This.Now I can excuse people for not recognizing this as Robert Redford if they are not super familiar with him or his work (esp. if they happen to be super young), but I cannot, for the life of me, see how anyone can mistake this as Zack Galifinakis. It looks nothing like him. Is every chubby bearded guy automatically Zack G (who I realize has also lost significant weight recently if I’m not mistaken)?
Only fucking dummies can’t differentiate between Redford in a movie 50 years old and Zach “The Hangover” Galifianakis. It’s not a common thing. This article is click-baity nothingness.
I knew it was Robert Redford from Jeremiah Johnson from the get-go, despite teh fact that I’ve never seen the movie. Just because I’m old enough that Robert Redford looms large enough in my pop-culture knowledge to not be overshadowed by Zach Galifinakis.But the two do look very similar when their facial and scalp hair are like that. Robert Redford is one of those guys for whom a beard is only detrimental to his looks (at least, a beard of that size), and maybe Zach Galifinakis is more handsome than we’re giving him credit for.
I’m old enough that Robert Redford looms large enough in my pop-culture knowledge to not be overshadowed by Zach Galifinakis.It’s possible we’re old. Like, officially.
It’s 100% that you’re old. That isn’t Robert Redford to anyone below the age of 50. Nothing about that chubby bearded man evokes what I know of as RR:
nice try but that’s not Robert Redford, that’s my friend’s mom
Well, that’s embarrassing. It would seem there’s a teeny-tiny possibility that the scores of existing, often iconic movies Robert Redford made when he was young could have clued in anyone who’s “below the age of 50” as to his identity. The movies haven’t evaporated. It seems damn-near impossible to only know Redford as an old man, unless your range of cinematic interest begins and ends with fucking Vin Diesel. Literally as I’m typing this – right this instant – “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” is playing on TCM! I’m sure you haven’t heard of that, but it’s a movie that literally millions of people know and love, and those millions of people aren’t all over fifty. Redford now appears in one low-budget movie about every four years and it disappears in a week. If that’s the only way you can recognize him, maybe you need to…you know…broaden your horizons just a little bit. (Don’t be scared if characters in older movies don’t dress and talk exactly like you, or if the theme song doesn’t use Auto-Tune. I’m sure it can be confusing at first, but you’ll adjust.)Fucking hell, man.
This comment is moronic. There are millions of films in existence. I could watch movies from now until the end of time at random and never come across a Redford one by high chance.
Good thing you didn’t turn on TCM today. It’s his birthday and they showed about eight of his movies in a row. That was close!
It’s almost as if TCM isn’t as popular with the younger crowd as you think it is. I just looked at his filmography and I’ve only seen him in his Marvel role and in Watchmen. I watch a LOT of movies. I’ve never seen any of his popular movies because I didn’t exist when they were popular, and they’re not my type of movies.
If you watched and liked The Winter Soldier, there are several of his classic films you would probably enjoy. Three Days of the Condor in particular was a major influence on that film. (Enough so that several critics mentioned that casting Redford was a tip of the hat.)
A) there are a lot of movies that are worth watching even though you didn’t exist when they came out. You’ve never seen a Hitchcock?B) Redford is very versatile. Unless you only like horror or animation, he’s probably done something you’d like.
This dude is seriously like “turn on TCM” as if anybody under 40 still has cable.
There isn’t really a “Robert Redford type” of movie any more than there is a “Leonardo DiCaprio type” movie. Which is actually a pretty good modern equivalent as they are excellent actors who were often (but not always) in high quality movies, and who were unfairly characterized as just handsome guys rather than good actors early in their careers. If nothing else, everybody should see “All the President’s Men” (1976) about the Watergate investigation, where Redford plays journalist Bob Woodward. It is as important as ever in modern times as it shows how journalism is supposed to deal with a corrupt president and it should make you angry that it didn’t do its job (even Woodward, who is still around) with Trump.
Not all movies are equal. There are only around a hundred Best Picture winners, for example, and he’s in several.
You’re the one who came rolling in with “you’re old” and “anyone under the age of 50″. He was still huge in the 80s and 90s— Out of Africa, The Natural, The Horse Whisperer, Indecent Proposal, Sneakers. I didn’t even see most of these but if you had any awareness of the entertainment world by, say, 1988, you knew who he was.
BTW, I’m under 50 and I love Sneakers.
Your condescending smugness is showing, buddy. I watch a lot of movies, in different genres and languages, but the medium has been going for a long time now. There’s a lot to catch up on. It could just be that Robert Redford hasn’t made the type of movies I want to seek out. (‘Jeremiah Johnson’, for instance, doesn’t sound like my cup of tea at all.) Just because someone hasn’t seen enough of the guy’s movies to recognise him in a role where he looks completely different to how he has for the last twenty years or so, doesn’t make them a philistine.
He’s iconic. “All the President’s Men,” for instance, is vaguely well-known.
People use the word “iconic” as if it weren’t inherently subjective. I understand he’s an actor with a long and respected career. Doesn’t mean I have to watch his movies if they wouldn’t otherwise interest me.
I actually just watched it again last night. It actually is a really good film. The summary in the article makes it sound like it was a 1950s Western with evil Indians and heroic whites, but it is a lot more nuanced than that. Yes, the Crow and Blackfeet kill settlers (which was a real thing they did), but on the other hand, those settlers were settling without permission on their lands, and the movie stresses that.
I’ve seen a bunch of Redford’s classic movies (The Candidate is a personal favorite, and that came out the same year as Jeremiah Johnson) and know perfectly well what he looked like in his prime.I would never have recognized him from this gif, which I always assumed was Galifinakis. That beard changes his face completely.
Sorry, Sir. I’ll get off your lawn now.
Maybe kids don’t know Robert Redford, but they do know Zack G.
Come to think of it, I’m about 99% percent sure I’ve never seen it either.* But I know for damn sure I saw that VCR tape case a couple hundred times at the video store as a kid.*The only slim chance I saw it is if TBS happened to show it at some point between The Blues Brothers, Battle Beyond the Stars, The Planet of the Apes (1-5), Beastmaster, and various westerns and war movies.
It’s pretty dumbfounding, yeah.
I’m Gen X, a former film student, and I’m well familiar with young Robert Redford’s looks. I still thought it was Galifinakis.
Honestly, I thought it was a yellow and gold dress.
I had no idea that it was Redford. But I never thought it was Galifinakis, either. Jeremiah Johnson would have been on my list of guesses as to what it’s from but I didn’t know Redford played him.
It’s more like the driving force of internet culture for the last decade was my generation and Robert Redford hasn’t been in many movies I’ve seen (I watch a lot of movies), so it’s safe to assume other 20 somethings haven’t seen many of his films either. The movie this is from came out 20 years before I was born.
Dang starting to see some folks get heated and angry at each other and just want to remind everyone this is fun low stakes shooting-the-shit about an internet meme between folks who know and appreciate movies and folks who thought this was Zach Galifianakis.
I didn’t know it was Redford, he clearly out on a fair bit of weight for the role but I knew it wasn’t Galifianakis. I just assumed it was some other ‘70s actor.Good for Redford, it seems outside his wheelhouse.
Thanks, I have long pondered this precise question.
at least casting for the inevitable remake won’t be hard
I don’t think this is a story that needs remaking.
Said no one in Hollywood for the last 20 years.
For the last time, it’s the “Bourbon-Stained” Bears!
After 1000 appearances of this meme online, I finally looked up what it’s about. TIL Pam is the one showing the pictures to someone else.
knowledge = power!
Idiot, that’s Bill Clinton.
“Duke, that’s not Clinton! That’s one of your mechanical hillbilly bears!”
“Do we trust Duke with nuclear weapons?”“We trust him with the ones he has now.”
“Wait’ll you see the muffin shooter!”
I’m probably not the only person that just learned this today.
You’re also probably not the only person who literally could not possibly care less.
Isn’t it obviously Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson?
Isn’t it obviously Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson?
Ok, so why are there two pictures of Zach Galifianakis up top, then?
…people think that?
…people think?
that?
No it’s Tairy Greene, the actor well known for teaching acting classes for children and staring in the training video for Gravy Robbers.
that’s zach galifianakis. i’ve seen a lot of Robert Redford films and he always looks same, as the pretty blonde man.
More people need to watch some of the hundreds of great of movies that were made before they were born. It’s a magical thing that will hip them to the existence of scores of iconic performers who – I know this sounds crazy – don’t wear super hero outfits. (Please be aware- Charlie Chaplin is not Adolf Hitler! Two completely different guys.)
I’m Gen X, a former film student, and I’m well familiar with young Robert Redford’s looks. I still thought it was Galifinakis.
Shut up gramps
“and ANOTHER thing – what happened to swing music?”
Why back in my day the teens would dance their Swing Dances in their nice, clean Gap khakis. Now? Nothing.
Swing music went out of fashion after Jefferson Airplane cleared the way for Jefferson Starship who in turn paved the way for Grand Funk.
HENRY FORD KILLED THE RAILROAD I TELLS YA!
Snotty Boomer energy is the most grating kind of Boomer energy.
Did Redford eat anyone’s liver in this movie?Also, not condoning what the real Johnson did, but “Liver-eater” is a pretty badass nickname.
Oh shit, as a “very, if not extremely online person” I had no idea! These aren’t two actors I’d normally say look alike, but there we are…
Amazed this is even a thing. Terrifying that so many people do not recognize Robert Redford, despite the fact he is still alive. You young people, go watch The Sting and Sneakers, STAT!
You young people, go watch The Sting and Sneakers, STAT!Agreed! Or All the President’s Men or Three Days of the Condor or Butch Cassidy or The Great Waldo Pepper or The Hot Rock or The Candidate.The man’s been in the business a long time and he’s made some good movies is what I’m saying.
Oh, no! Don’t say that! They’ll pull out their “get off of my lawns!” Everybody’s got one!
“And some folks say, he’s up there still…” Yes previous generations, while you are watching decades of wonderful RR films, check out Jeremiah Johnson.
Man, Redford could NOT work a beard.
We watched Jeremiah Johnson in class in high school in the 80s. I don’t remember the specific educational context apart from our teacher being a lazy bastard in a shitty underfunded school system (yay Louisiana) but I do remember liking the movie.
Zach is a cannibal, that’s where the confusion comes in.
At least it’s not as bad as people who think the “angry clapping gif” is of Simon Pegg and not Orson Welles.
Is this from Sherlock? He’s great in that.
I didn’t think it was Zach Galifanakis but I honestly couldn’t have told you who it was…I know some film snobs in here are getting the vapors but I really am not a huge Robert Redford aficionado and his peak was decades ago. The other thing people are forgetting is that a good 1/2 the time these gifs are pretty low quality, like I’ve seen gifs from movies I’ve seen and had to squint lol.
This is the correct take. To think it is Zach makes someone pretty clueless as it clearly isn’t. But not knowing it is Redford just means you either haven’t seen him in with a beard or are young enough to not know who he is, beard or no beard.
My main association with ‘Jeremiah Johnson’ is that there’s an episode of the American/Australian sci-fi series ‘Farscape’ called “Jeremiah Crichton” that started because the star, Ben Browder, wanted to wear a fake beard. As said in the audio commentary, “That’s a great place to start writing an episode: the actor wants a fake beard.”
I hate everything about this story and I hate myself worse for reading it
I know who Robert Redford is and have watched and enjoyed several of his films, spanning decades, yet I was floored when I found out that this was him a few years ago.I never saw Jeremiah Johnson (clearly), and the beard and the build caused me to assume that it was just some random dude from a movie or TV show I’d never heard of. I’ll say, though, that I don’t understand thinking it was Galifianakis. The clip was clearly from something made well before when he’d have looked like that.
Robert Redford didn’t usually have a beard, but that image is very clearly him only with a beard. He’s an absurdly handsome man, it would take more than a beard to disguise him.On a vaguely related note, The Hangover films are some of the worst films I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve no idea why I’ve even seen 2 and 3. Ah yes, the pandemic, that’s why.
The hairstyle is also a departure from anything he wore in his more well-known roles (Redford’s hair is thick wavy, but in that role it was straight & more straw-like), and he also looks chubbier, though that may be a factor of the costume and hair/beard.
The first one was funny at the time, but I really have had no need to revisit it since 2009
I always thought it was just some random mountain man.
I know who it is, but it still looks like Mark Hamill to me.
Thank you. I knew I couldn’t be the only one who saw that.
Maybe I’m biased as a Jeremiah Johnson fan, but I didn’t realize that image of Redford was commonly thought to be Galifianakis by so many people. Besides a beard, I don’t think it looks anything like him.
Look, I love Galifianakis and they both had longer hair and a beard I guess, but Redford is one of the prettiest men who ever lived. Galifianakis is actually a handsome dude, but come the fuck on. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
Part of an incredible run of movies with Redford from 1969 – 1980.
This is not nearly the convincing evidence you think it is.
If the prison guard was alive at the time I’m petitioning for an Eli Roth directed remake of Jeremiah Johnson.
Clearly Robert Redford.
You misspelled “Galifianakas” in the headline. How am I supposed to believe this site’s reporting about Ellie Kemper being a white supremacist? Or Lin-Manuel Miranda being a racist?
– Not being familiar with Redford is on a level with not being familiar with Eastwood. Understandable, I guess, but not if you’re a movie fan.- Redford does not look like Redford, at all, in that gif, so not recognizing him is completely understandable.
– Kinda weird to see this much condescension towards classic movie fans at a sign called, well, the AV Club.