{"id":116521,"date":"2026-01-29T18:31:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T18:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116521\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T18:31:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T18:31:26","slug":"kevin-james-recreates-viral-king-of-queens-meme-more-than-20-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116521\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin James recreates viral King of Queens meme more than 20 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Actor Kevin James brought back a funny pose<\/a> from \u201cThe King of Queens\u201d more than 20 years after it first became a hit meme online. The picture shows him wearing a plaid shirt, shrugging his shoulders and making a silly face. Fans everywhere know the look from social media posts. <\/p>\n

James was at the premiere of his new movie \u201cSolo Mio\u201d when a reporter from \u201cEntertainment Tonight\u201d asked him to do the famous meme pose<\/a> again. He laughed and said it still felt \u201ccorny\u201d to him, just like it did back when the photo was first taken. <\/p>\n

The original photo was taken early in James\u2019 career<\/a> when \u201cThe King of Queens\u201d was starting. It was from a goofy promo shoot, and James once hoped the picture would stay hidden. The photographer at the time told him it wouldn\u2019t be a problem, but the Internet had other ideas.<\/p>\n

Years later, social media users found the wardrobe shot and turned it into a reaction meme. Many people use the image to show a \u201cwhat can you do?\u201d moment in funny online posts. The meme took off as people added captions and shared it widely. <\/p>\n

James has now embraced the meme more than once. In 2023, he used the picture to promote his stand-up tour<\/a>, showing he could laugh at himself. And in January 2024, he even reenacted the pose<\/a> with host Jimmy Fallon on \u201cThe Tonight Show.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fans of \u201cThe King of Queens\u201d also see this as a chance to remember the whole show. The sitcom ran from 1998 to 2007 and was a favorite for many viewers who liked its humor about everyday life. <\/p>\n

Some viewers have also started talking about possible returns or reunions of \u201cThe King of Queens.\u201d Both James and co\u2011star Leah Remini have said they would consider something new, though they also talked about how hard that might be without actor Jerry Stiller, who passed away in 2020. <\/p>\n

With his new movie coming out and the old picture still getting laughs, the goofy shrug that once embarrassed him has become part of his story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Actor Kevin James brought back a funny pose from \u201cThe King of Queens\u201d more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-116521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}