A 2016 video of fans celebrating has been altered for years to show fake reactions to a wide range of things. The meme was even used in a Family Guy episode.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation on Jan. 6 after nearly a decade in power. Following his announcement, a video went viral on social media appearing to show a crowd celebrating the news.
“Live reaction to Justin Trudeau resigning,” a post with millions of views says.
But this video doesn’t show the crowd reacting to Trudeau’s resignation. Different variations of the video have existed online since the original was posted on June 16, 2016 by an English radio station.
Here’s what we can VERIFY about the origins of this video meme.
THE SOURCES
WHAT WE FOUND
The original June 16, 2016 video shows soccer fans at a venue inside Ashton Gate Stadium in Bristol, England, cheering as England scores the winning goal against Wales in the Euro 2016 match. Over the years, the clip has been repeatedly manipulated and shared online to depict the crowd reacting to various unrelated events, the latest being news reports of Justin Trudeau’s resignation.
The video’s original caption reads, “Fans at Ashton Gate Stadium, Bristol, celebrate England winner against Wales at Euro 2016.”
The video was taken by Charlotte Gay, who at the time was working for local radio station Heart News West Country, a Heart FM station. She told the Bristol Post the moment was filmed from the venue’s top balcony. She posted a shortened version of the viral video on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In 2018, a modified version of the video appeared on YouTube, but the television screen and the phone screens of some fans were replaced by a green square to create a green screen-like effect to enable others to more easily manipulate the video with alternate footage. The green screen version was reposted by others in 2020 and 2022, making an easily manipulated version of the clip readily available.
This video has been shared numerous times with various other videos edited into the screens, but in all versions, the bar, crowd and background posters remain the same.
Here are some notable versions of the manipulated clip: