Nearly a decade after becoming an advice animal, "10 guy" Connor Sinclair reveals his identity and gives full account of his image

Apparently someone who became an advice animal meme 10 years ago decided to come out and accept an opportunity talk a bit about himself to the website KnowYourMeme in a Q&A format. I quoted what are IMO the 2 most important questions.

Uncovering the origins of memes and the people behind them isn’t always as easy as tracking down a well-known celebrity or pop culture reference, especially when it comes to some of the old Advice Animals. For the last decade, the true identity of 10 Guy has never been known since it first appeared in 2011. After so much time remaining anonymous, UK-based resident Connor Sinclair finally decided to come forward and reveal that he was 10 Guy, finally putting one of the longest “unsolved meme-steries” to rest. In order to learn more about Sinclair himself and what was truly going on behind the scenes of such a classic meme, we sat down with him to catch up and hear the full account of 10 Guy for his first exclusive interview.

Q: That same day, the first 10 Guy meme was also shared to Reddit that went on to become the iconic format. Did you see this particular meme or any of the other early examples back then? What’d you think of your likeness being used in such a manner?

A: I think I did see the first meme. I woke up the next day and it was everywhere. I think that particular meme about “want hospital” was at the top of the front page and then more and more popped up. I was just surprised, to be honest. I remember showing my quite stoic german roommate Jochen and I don't think he really got it, to be fair I don’t think I did either [laughs]. I thought that was actually really good, and I think the guy that posted it said that that actually happened to them. I just love the idea of someone getting a text from their friend next to them that says they need the hospital. And then yeah, it just kinda went crazy from there.

I never really thought it would be something that would still be around after a year. Even then, I knew that the internet was pretty quick turnover in terms of content, so I just thought it would be like an overnight thing.

Q: So more recently, you finally decided to come forward and publicly announce you were 10 Guy. What ultimately led to this decision? Why now after nearly a decade of keeping it secret?

A: I’m not going to deny the NFT thing is a part of it. It’s very exciting, and it's a cool community. It's full of legitimate artists too, but for some reason, memes are seen as valuable on it so it would be silly not to make the most of it, in my opinion. I’m also a lot more settled and not as nervous about coming forward. Any jobs I’ve had in the past, they either find out and they are fine with it or they know beforehand and think it's funny. People can appreciate it was just by chance.

I've never made any money from the meme. The only things I've had out of this were like free drinks on occasion, and I've never taken a job related to it or anything like that. I don't feel like I'm owed anything, it's just very fun and interesting. It would be an opportunity that if I didn't take, I would probably regret. Another reason why I decided to come forward is that people in the past have pretended to be me, so it was in the back of my mind that I should probably get ahead of it before somebody else maybe takes advantage of the situation.