What Is Hide the Pain Harold? Origin & Meaning of the Meme
Learn about Hide the Pain Harold, the stock photo model whose forced smile became one of the most famous memes. Make your own.
Hide the Pain Harold is a meme featuring a stock photo of an older man with a strained, forced smile that barely conceals inner pain. The man in the photos is Andras Arato, a retired Hungarian electrical engineer who was photographed for stock images in 2011.
The photos were meant to depict a happy senior man, but internet users noticed that his smile looked forced and his eyes betrayed hidden sadness. This disconnect between the surface-level happiness and the apparent inner suffering turned him into one of the most recognizable memes on the internet.
How It Works
The meme is used whenever someone is pretending to be happy or okay when they are clearly suffering. Harold's forced smile perfectly represents the universal experience of putting on a brave face while dying inside.
Harold's Real Story
Andras Arato was a regular retiree who agreed to stock photo shoots for extra income. When he discovered he had become a meme, he was initially upset but eventually embraced it. He now has a TEDx talk about his experience and has appeared in advertisements leveraging his meme fame.
Why It Endures
Hide the Pain Harold works because the emotion is so universal and so perfectly captured. Everyone has had to smile through pain, awkwardness, or disappointment. Harold's face validates that experience.