Ouch. It didn’t take the Internet long to institute #Teoing, which is kind of like planking, owling, milking, and #Tebowing, except you pose for a photo with your invisible girlfriend.
It was actually a pretty strange and sad story: A “Münchausen by Internet” meets MTV’s Catfish for Notre Dame star Manti Te’o . Deadspin exposed Te’o’s online and “deceased” girlfriend as a fraud, and, while many are reacting with “Oh, honey” type awkwardness, others on Instagram and Twitter are going straight for the gut with a new social phenomenon dubbed #Teoing.
#Teoing basically consists of men posing for photos with invisible girlfriends, according to Social News Daily .
The new fad is in the tradition of #Tebowing, a fad from late 2011 surrounding then-Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow for which people would take pictures of themselves on one knee “praying” like Tebow used to do whenever something would go well on the field.
Another similar, albeit short-lived trend in this vein, was #Eastwooding, for which users would pose next to empty chairs mocking Clint Eastwood’s bizarre performance at the 2012 Republican National Convention .
Now, #Teoing has images of men standing with, kissing, cradling, cuddling, and hugging imaginary girlfriends.
Our apologies to Manti Te’o on behalf of the Internet, but understand this: The absolute best way to get over a huge national embarrassment is to laugh about it.
Here are some early photos of people #Teoing. Have you participated in this trend? If so, tweet it to me @DustenIQ, and I’ll put together a “best of” post if this trend keeps up.