What happened to the Ermahgerd meme girl?

Know Your Meme

Maggie Goldenberger, the girl behind the iconic “Ermahgerd” meme, shares how a goofy childhood photo taken for fun turned into unexpected internet fame and what happened after.  Check out our new MEME STORE: https://thememestore.com/  Subscribe to our channel to learn more about trending memes, hear interviews from meme personalities and more! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbrPqq29C9Q_TQP7OFFRzcw?sub_confirmation=1  #meme #memes #memesvideos

Transcript

00:00So, what actually happens when your off-word childhood photo becomes one of the biggest memes of the year?

00:05I was holding up goosebumps, folks, and that resurfaced years later in 2012 and became a viral meme.

00:12The image was everywhere. The photo was taken in either 1998 or 1999, when Maggie was around 10 years old.

00:19The photo was a joke, a character, and it lived quietly on Kaylin's fridge for years,

00:23until she uploaded it to Facebook and MySpace, thinking nothing of it.

00:27Eventually, it got scraped, re-uploaded, and spread by people who had no idea who Maggie was.

00:32That included one of her old classmates, who reposted the meme on ebombsworld without realizing it was a photo of someone he knew.

00:39Maggie texted him, asking why he'd post her photo without asking. He was shocked. He genuinely didn't know it was her.

00:45He said he found it from a comedy website. So now I really want to know what was going on.

00:50Who would put my photo on the internet?

00:51That's when Maggie realized how far the meme had spread, and how little control she had over it.

00:56By 2012, Irma Gerd was everywhere. There were parody videos, oil paintings, and spinoffs.

01:02The Nerdist made a full sketch. Paramore's Hayley Williams even got in on the joke.

01:06R.L. Stine himself commented on the meme, saying he didn't really get it, but that it definitely boosted goosebumps sales.

01:11Why is it funny? I didn't get it.

01:13It's pronounced goosebumps. Goose bumps.

01:16Despite the meme's popularity, Maggie never tried to monetize it.

01:19She didn't sue anyone. She didn't sell merch. She just moved on.

01:23I did think about, like, selling shirts and all those things, and I'm like, I feel awful if they're not, like, you know, like, or being sustainable, you know?

01:30And I was like, I'm, like, charging $50 for a shirt. No, no. You know what I mean?

01:34So it just didn't seem to, like, match. Just didn't seem to line up.

01:37There was one other time she briefly embraced her meme status, a furry party in San Francisco.

01:42She was invited to attend and met Paul Bear Vasquez, better known as Double Rainbow Guy.

01:47According to Maggie, the event was a jungle-themed brewery party where guests were dressed in fursuits,

01:52and the dinner was infused with something she didn't realize until it kicked in.

01:56So where is Maggie Goldenberger now?

01:58After the meme went viral while she was traveling in India, Maggie returned home and earned her nursing degree.

02:04Today, she's a cardiac nurse living in Phoenix, Arizona.

02:07She's kept a low profile ever since.

02:09No influencer brand, no TikTok account, and no desire to capitalize on meme fame.

02:13She says she's only ever been recognized in public once.

02:16These days, she still sees the meme pop up now and then, and actually finds it funny.

02:20Her favorite version? Her own face photoshopped onto Mary Poppins.

02:23At this day when I see my picture pop up, it's, it's fun, because it's not common, and it's really random,

02:30and it just, it's a good joke, an inside joke, but then my friends are like,

02:34I'm still, I'm still alive, like, oh god, this old lady's still ticking.

02:37So, yeah, I really enjoy it.

02:39The rest of the world may remember her as Ermagerd Girl, but Maggie, she's just a nurse in Arizona

02:44who once took a photo with a stack of Goosebumps books.

02:47And if there's one message she'd leave you with, it's this.

02:49Reading is cool, and do not let the internet tell you otherwise.

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