Who is 'Scumbag Steve'? Internet teenage hate figure reveals infamous picture was taken by his mother (and he's actually quite a nice guy)



It was an innocent picture that quickly grew into an internet sensation.



A young teenage boy dressed in a brown fur collared coat and baseball cap poses nonchalantly for the camera.

But this innocuous snap quickly morphed into the online phenomenon 'Scumbag Steve', the internet's favourite hate figure.

Viral: The original 'scumbag Steve' picture has been daubed with an ever increasing number of rude and offensive captions

Meme: The picture, taken in 2006, was copied from a social network site built by Blake's mother, Susan

The picture was daubed with all manner of abusive and mocking slogans, with hundreds of variations flying through cyberspace.

But it has now been revealed that the real 'Steve' is in fact 21-year-old Blake Boston from Boston, Massachusetts.

In an email exchange with website Know Your Meme, Mr Boston described how the whole 'scumbag Steve' phenomenon, which only began a month ago, had taken him by surprise.

'People started blowing up [calling] my phone, telling me I was all over the net. At first it went deep [hurt]. Then I couldn’t help but laugh at some of the s**t.'

'People got my name, my phone, my Facebook, started callin’. Callin’ me all kind of racist s**t, callin’ my girl and my family all hours of the night. Some a*****e put up an ultrasound picture of my unborn kid and wished it would die.'

Identity: Neither Blake Boston or his mother Susan had any idea of the meme phenomenon until he became one

According to Mr Boston the original picture was taken in 2006 when he was just 16.

The picture was first copied from his MySpace page and posted online around January 18.



He added that the shot was taken by his mother after she begged him to help her with a photography class she was taking.

Not wanting to offend his mother he encouraged his friends to compliment her on the picture, and in his words, 'we hyped them to her and she went crazy wit them.'

Bizarre: Pop legend Rick Astley unwittingly starred in his own internet meme when users were directed to a video of him singing

He added, 'she has like over 300 pictures on her computer.

'U have no idea how upset she was when I showed her what had become of her photo project.

'But we are laughin’ now that she knows how we felt, she’s a good woman.'

Mr Boston, who works 'all day' in an unspecified job, takes night school classes and is soon to become a father.

He is also a member of a rap group called the Beantown Mafia.

Mr Boston is just one of a number of victims of the internet phenomenon known as a 'meme'.



While the term can be traced back to the early twentieth century, in recent years a meme has grown into an underground phenomenon where ideas, jokes or social commentaries are spread via the internet.



Others add their own variations to the central theme and pass them on to other users via chat rooms or social networks.



Other bizarre but harmless examples include the craze of 'Rickrolling'.

An internet user would click on an innocent looking web link, only to find they were directed to a picture of 80's pop star Rick Astley singing his number one hit Never Gonna Give You Up.



According to Google, searches for 'scumbag Steve' started to gain popularity on January 19, peaking on February 2.

They have been in steady decline ever since.