73-year-old Hungarian resident Arato Andras visited Moscow, which caused a huge stir among residents of the capital. The man once became famous as the hero of the meme about “Harold, who hides the pain” - for several years now, society has been wondering what is wrong with the health of a man who smiles so unnaturally.
Harold's eyes are indeed always sad, and therefore the smile on his face looks forced. The man's face was noticed by users in one of the advertising campaigns for pensioners, after which it became the real face of the Network. Society learned a lot about Harold only after he started his own pages on social networks.
Arato also reported on the Internet that he visited Moscow. He visited Red Square, the mausoleum and St. Basil's Cathedral. The man had a great walk around the Russian capital and took pictures with local graduates - but did not tell his fans about the purpose of the trip.
Harold hiding the pain - what is known about him
The man’s face, as mentioned above, was first used to advertise goods and services for pensioners. The smiling pensioner from photo banks, symbolizing a successful, full-fledged old age, quickly fell in love with the inhabitants of the Internet with his unnatural, forced smile.
Internet users first used the photo as a joke in 2011, but the man's popularity peaked in 2014. It was then that Arato was nicknamed Harold, who hides the pain. The meme quickly spread on social networks like Zhdun and “Nadonyshke”. Users adorned the old man’s face with tense emotions and all sorts of funny phrases, like “When your girlfriend said she wants to spend more time together.”
On March 3, 2016, Harold made himself known. He created a personal page on VKontakte, from which everyone learned that the man was from Hungary, and his name was András Arató.
As it became known, Andras was born in 1945 and is a fairly well-known personality in his country. After graduating from the Technical University of Budapest in 1969, he began his career at the Electrical Testing Institute, soon moving into the lighting industry and rising to become technical director of a small light bulb manufacturing company. In addition, Arato taught students electrical engineering.
The pensioner leads a completely healthy and normal lifestyle. At 73, he continues to work, go to the pool and actively communicate on the Internet. Nothing unusual happened in his life after fame - in particular, he did not become richer, the man admits.
All the photos with Harold speak for themselves, the portal site reports. In the photographs, the man is smiling, but his smile is strained, and it seems that he is not at all happy. Harold memes convey similar emotions - when a person has to pretend to be happy, although in reality he is sad and hurt.
One day, a ridiculous story even spread online that Harold had supposedly died. So, Internet detectives allegedly found the old man’s house and it turned out to be empty. Then they tracked down his relatives, who told the heartbreaking story of his life.
“Harold” was addicted to drugs from his youth and managed to hide it from his family for a long time. When the family’s financial situation suddenly worsened, the truth was revealed - both the wife and two children tried to fight the man’s addiction, but it was all in vain.
During one of the scandals, the old man’s wife died of a heart attack and after that he simply stopped speaking. The son tried to see the man for psychoanalysts, but nothing helped - his speech disappeared, and a confused expression remained on his face.
One day, a man working as an advertising photographer asked his father to pose for a photo for an advertisement for a bank launching a special pension program. The father agreed, but it was not possible to make his face happy. But on this day a miracle happened - the granddaughter who came to the shooting suddenly touched the grandfather and he began to talk, because the girl was very similar to his wife.
As a result, the son of “Harold” spread a request on the Internet that his father be left alone - let them do whatever they want with the photographs, but users should not touch the family, because some crazy people often called the man and wheezed into the phone “Harold, smile "and the like.
To save money, advertisers often use stock photos. Every day hundreds of photographs of girls chewing salads, successful men in ties and joyful children holding hands flash before our eyes. Although the names of almost all the models are unknown, since before the shooting they sign an agreement on non-disclosure of their data and contacts, these faces have become practically family to us. Look At Me remembered the main stars of stock photos.
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Jennifer Anderson aka The Everywhere Girl (Ubiquitous girl) is a mid-90s model from Portland who became a pioneer among stock models. You may not recognize her face, but this young "college student" (who never studied there in real life) has repeatedly become the face of such brands as Dell, BBC, HP, Visa and Microsoft. The actress and model took part in the filming in 1996, and over the past 20 years these photos have spread, perhaps, to all free photo stocks and leaked into materials with a wide variety of content, ranging from Christian literature to the websites of the Canadian government and the US Navy. Now the “Ubiquitous Girl” has her own blog, and her many fans find her photos in the most unexpected places.
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Smiling boy clenching his fists enthusiastically and throws his hands up, looking at the laptop screen, became famous thanks to a series of macros with advice from an inexperienced and naive Internet user. The meme, known as First Day Internet Kid, is inspired by a series of photographs of "Boy Spending Time with Laptop" available on stock photo sites Shutterstock, Dreamstrime and ISTOCKPHOTO. Photos of an unknown child were published in 2008 by Polish photographer Piotr Rzeszutek, and in December 2011, the first macros with his photos appeared in the r/AdviceAnimals subreddit. The peak of the meme’s popularity, according to Google queries, occurred in 2012–2013. First Day Internet Kid has become one of the ways to portray a neophyte on imageboards and a user who has become a victim of trolling.
Harold hiding the pain
Hide the Pain Harold ("Harold Hiding the Pain") or just Harold (alternative name Maurice) is an elderly man in a series of stock photos who became famous for his unusual smile. It's so tight that it seems like he's hiding discomfort or pain. The first interest in a series of photographs with Harold appeared in 2011 on the Facepunch forum, where user Greenen72 posted pictures from the popular photo stock DreamsTime, in which these sets have high ratings. In October 2011, “Harold Hiding the Pain” received his own Facebook page, and in May 2014, a large post was dedicated to Harold on 4chan, where anonymous people described the difficult (albeit fictional) life of an unhappy character. The story, translated into different languages, roams the Internet in the form of a gallery with signed photographs.
Mister businessman
In stock photos, many models depict businessmen, but two characters stand out in particular and can be found in a variety of guises: broker, CEO, diplomat. They are found on the websites of Spanish language courses, website creation services or marketing agencies. Nameless gray-haired men with fake smiles, who are supposed to radiate trust, reliability and success, have become symbols of cowardly companies hiding their true colors. Models also found fame as heroes of memes and macros.
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Grandfather Harold (Hide The Pain Harold) is the hero of a series of stock photographs that have become popular memes thanks to the unusual expression on the man’s face. Harold's forced smile reveals a deep, hidden pain.
Origin
The trend, if you can call it that, of laughing at stock photos started around 2015. It was then that many public pages were created, ridiculing the awkward situations of the people in the photo. . One of these models was an elderly gray-haired man, whose photographs were used in advertising of various products and services for pensioners. Photos of my grandfather appeared on the dreamstime resource.
The grandfather was first used as a joke on the Facepunch website on September 13, 2011: a stock photo of him was published by a user under the nickname Greenen72. The character, unknown at that time, received his first nickname - “Harold the Pain Hider.”
Three weeks later she appeared on Facebook page, dedicated to Harold. The peak of popularity came only in 2014, when another page was created with the same person on the cover, but under the name “Maurice”. Now this page
Arato András, known online as Harold (or Morris), the Hiding Pain, was entertaining guests at a bar in the Hungarian capital and posted a photo from there on Facebook. He is also a retired engineer, leads tours of Budapest, enjoys his fame, does not hide any pain and holds creative evenings for fans.
Almost everyone who has been on the Internet more than once knows these eyes full of pain and a painful smile. This is Harold the Pain, aka Morris, aka Grandfather Harold, aka Hide The Pain Harold, one of the ancient but still popular memes.
Harold was born in 2011 on the Facepunch forum, where they published a whole photo shoot with him, and has not left the screens since then. They love him on VK.
They love him on Odnoklassniki.
He is known in the West.
And he knows a lot not only about physical, but also about mental pain.
"Oh shit. I hope they didn't see it."
If you know the Harold memes, you can guess that there is horse porn on his laptop screen.
The man is especially popular in Russia, where he is used not only on boards to create new memes, but also for advertising, quite serious purposes. It is especially often taken from photo banks to advertise medical services.
And financial products for retirees.
That is, in those areas where pain is not just a word.
In fact, the role of Harold is played by a Hungarian pensioner named Arato Artash. He is an engineer, lives in Budapest, is fully aware of his fame and treats it with irony. Arato knows a little Russian and in 2015 even started a VK page for himself. In this regard, TJournal took a comment from him.
Arato is 72 years old and continues to live an active life. How active can be judged by its Facebook. It was there that he posted a photo from a bar in Budapest, where he worked behind the counter pouring beer last week.
The trademark smile and pain have not gone away, everything is in place. This immediately gave rise to suitable jokes on the Internet. For example, on Pikabu.
Medialeaks also had a hand.
Arato András earns money by leading tours around Budapest. He is a popular person, and there is no end to those interested. Moreover, Harold, Hiding the Pain, holds his own recitals, gathering fans.
