“We’re just normal men” is a statement first uttered by the puppet Hacker T. Dog from BBC’s kids’ channel CBBC in a viral blooper reel. Puppeteer Phil Fletcher ad-libbed the line and caused co-star Lauren Layfield to break character and laugh uncontrollably.
The blooper reel made its way to YouTube and a viral share on Twitter from an unlikely source propelled the phrase into meme territory.
The statement itself doesn’t mean much, and it’s not entirely clear to anyone why Fletcher said it, including the puppeteer himself. However, there is some context to the line that the original blooper reel leaves out.
Somehow, the YouTube account Antigone Journal was able to get ahold of a longer clip showing what led up to the viral moment and posted it on February 7, 2023. Layfield and Hacker T. Dog had been discussing a show about ice skating kids and ended up getting their faces real close to each other as Layfield gave a big wide-mouthed smile. Hacker himself didn’t understand why they were doing that and expressed his confusion.
Layfield pointed to the screen and indicated that they were imitating the stance of opponents on the show Ice Stars, and told Hacker to smile—but he objected.
“Yeah, but we’re not ice stars, love,” he said. “We’re just normal men.”
“What do you mean, ‘normal men?’” Layfield asks, trying not to laugh.
“We’re just innocent men,” Hacker clarifies.
At that, Layfield snorts and officially fails to hold in her laughter as both of them turn to the camera and music begins to play.
The moment occurred while filming for CBBC on November 1, 2016, and Layfield posted the blooper reel with the meme’d clip on October 30, 2017. The video got some attention, but not enough to be considered a meme until Jacqui Abbott, vocalist for the 90s English pop rock group The Beautiful South, posted a 17-second clip from the reel on Twitter on April 15, 2022.
The next day, Layfield quote tweeted Abbott’s post, helping it to reach viral status. Abbott’s account has since been deleted, but before that happened, people began to make parodies of the blooper moment or post videos of public figures speaking with the audio from the clip dubbed over the original.
Others penned the line above images from popular media or photos of public figures whom some consider less than normal.
In an interview with digital media company Planet Woo, Fletcher admits that eight years later, he and Layfield still laugh about that one moment from their careers. As funny as he thinks it is, he's also floored at how popular the line became, remarking that it's been viewed two billion times over the years.
"It's madness," he said. "We'll never beat it."
Fletcher's only reason for saying "we're just normal men" in that moment was to throw off his co-host because he thought it would be funny.
"It was just to throw her under the bus. I didn't know what the hell I was talking about."
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