Since 2015, the annual arrival of the Met Gala has meant the internet is subjected to more than just an influx of red carpet moments, celebrity gossip and glittering photographs. As the event gets underway, each year also sees the re-emergence of social media posts shouting that ‘Jason Derulo has fallen down the stairs at the Met Gala!!!!’, accompanied by the same image (below) of a suit-clad man taking a tumble down some red, carpeted stairs.
It goes without saying that Derulo has not fallen down the famous Met steps every year for the better part of a decade. Especially since The Voice Australia judge has actually never even attended a Met Gala.
So, where did the reoccurring rumour come from—and who is the poor man who actually took a tumble? Scroll on for the story behind the meme.
When Did the Joke Start?
The bit that Derulo fell down the stairs at the Met Gala started in 2015, when an image of a man in a white suit falling down some red stairs made its way online on Met Gala night. Some netizens decided the man in the pic resembled the singer, and that the red stairs were the carpet of that year’s Met Ball. As Billboard reported at the time, Tweets with this claim quickly took off on the app other uses quickly sounded off with laughter.
Derulo quickly tried to shut down the reports. He took to Instagram with a post saying he was not even in New York, but actually in Los Angeles at rehearsal.
Every year since, the joke has popped back up online on the day of the Met. Given many social media users have seen it circulate for several years, it has become a reoccurring inside joke that seemingly the whole internet is in on.
What Is the Real Story Behind the Photo?
So if it’s not Derulo in the photo, who is it? The image was actually not taken at the 2015 Met Gala at all, but rather several years earlier at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
While it’s not entirely clear who the man in the viral image actually is, other photos of the incident, taken from different angles, reveal that he is white and really bares no resemblance to Derulo.
