Photobombing with Michael Cera
Featured, Visual Arts — By Stephanie Nikolopoulos on February 24, 2010 at 12:00 amIn between sharing pics of his Jersey Shore makeover and playing Taboo while promoting his latest film Youth in Revolt on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last month (January 25, 2010, episode), Michael Cera talked about his reputation as a photobomber. Nothing at all as terrorizing as the underwear bomber, who was caught just the month before, a photobomber is nevertheless someone photographers sometimes wish could be arrested for wrecking their photos. A photobomber is someone who intentionally dives into the background of a photograph, unbeknownst to the people in the picture. Photobombing is also sometimes referred to as photojacking.
Back in the days of film, photobombers were a real pain. Precious film was wasted on their attention-hogging antics. Today, you still may get home and realize that someone had dived into your photograph, but chances are with a digital camera you’ll have gotten the shot you want. After all, did you ever notice that the second a photo is taken, everyone in it rushes over to make sure they weren’t blinking and that they looked just right? Not a hair out of place.
Photobombing, it seems, has become a phenomenon. There are actual sites devoted to the art and craft of photobombing and documenting great photobombing moments. Well, that shouldn’t be too surprising. There are sites devoted to just about everything these days. From the founders of I Can Has Cheezburger?, that site of cute-’n'-crazy kittehs, comes This Is Photobomb, where readers can send in their photojacked pics. The result is hilarious, like this one, sent in to This Is Photobomb from Allicat:
"Lucky Day" sent in to This Is Photobomb by Allicat
At first, it looks like a nice father-son picture. Nothing too out of the ordinary. But who’s that in the background? To the father and son, it’s the guy that ruined their lovely picture. To us, it’s the guy that made their picture worth even looking at in the first place.
Another site devoted to this is photo-bombers.com: ruining photos one bomb at a time. The subtitle alone indicates the somewhat malicious nature of this phenomenon, even if it is kinda funny. From this site, comes this great shot:
Belly Bomber was posted on Photo-bombers.com
He probably never had a chance with the girls in the first place, but baring his belly in the midst of their glamour shot sure won’t help.
Other websites include Photobomb, FunniePicturez, and Mix 94.5′s Animal Photo Bombing.
The biggest name behind photobombing is Micahel Cera. Apparently, when he’s not filming movies like Juno, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and Superbad, and deciding whether or not to star in the Arrested Development film, and starring in music videos for fellow Canadians Islands, he somehow finds time to jump into people’s photos. Here’s one example from This Is Photobomb:
Michael Cera, Photobomber
He’s not the only celebrity crashing photos, though. Check out 007:
Daniel Craig Photobombs Taylor Swift
Poor Taylor Swift just can’t catch a break! First, it was Kanye West; now New York magazine shows Daniel Craig stealing the spotlight from Swifty.
Post links to your favorite photobombers below.
6 Comments
I loooooove photobombing, and do it frequently. My favorite is when there are teenagers in front of me at the movies/concert/sports event taking pictures of themselves, and I can lean forward so I’m in the shot too (making as creepy a face as possible.)
Of course, once they look at the picture you have to ske-daddle, but it’s totally worth it.
I actually prefer jumping into the foreground of the picture. I have several examples where my parents or girlfriend have been trying to take artsy landscape pictures that ended up with a blurry Jim head as I leaped in front of the camera at just the right second.
It’s a lot more fun than it should be.
I have to say I’m a little bitter on the subject. My mom was taking a picture of my husband and me at a wedding – and mind you, we are not naturally photogenic people (I don’t say this to disparage the handsomeness of my husband. He’s just not comfortable in front of cameras). This picture would have been a rare jewel, a slice of life image of our marriage…
…but the father of the bride stuck his head in. Oddly. Creepily. Now, ordinarily I wouldn’t care and would find it funny, but this was a rare photo!!
And, you know, the FOTB also officiated our wedding. So we’ve got lots of pictures with him. Better dressed. We didn’t need another.
(However, I find Daniel Craig in Taylor Swift’s photo to be hilarious. That child has enough pretty pictures, it was time for one with Daniel Craig with a concerning mustache.)
Thanks for this. I needed a good laugh.
everyone in it rushes over to make sure they weren’t blinking and that they looked just right? Not a hair out of place.