User:Rockfeather/Zeke

Zeke Durden is a character created in 2003 by Indiana University photographer Zach Downey that has circulated widely via the internet. A photo of Durden sporting a mullet haircut and standing shirtless next to a pickup truck has been a popular image online, on television, and in print media for a decade. The photo also became the basis of an internet meme, Almost Politically Correct Redneck.

Origin
Downey created the Durden character for a Halloween costume in 2003 by giving himself a mullet haircut. He donated the hair cuttings to Locks of Love, and his wife took the photo of Durden that would spread virally on the internet.

Viral phenomenon
The Durden photo began to spread virally after one of Downey’s friends posted it on a website devoted to mullets, where the image was named “mullet of the month.” The photo was widely reposted thereafter. In 2005, the photo appeared on the cover of the Oklahoma Gazette as part of an article titled “Mulletude.” It appeared on the Huffington Post website in an article titled “Ten Percent of Americans Can’t Decide Not to Be Idiots,” and on Fox News’ The Fox Nation website to promote a Fox News Radio episode by Todd Starnes titled “My ‘Big Redneck Wedding.’” Fox Nation erroneously credited the image to the Associated Press.

Parodies and adaptations
Numerous parodies and adaptations of the Zeke Durden image have subsequently appeared. An illustration based on the Durden photo accompanied a 2009 article on Heavy.com, "How to Survive in a Redneck Bar." Cloyd Rivers, a Twitter personality with about a million followers, originally used the Durden photo for his Twitter feed but later replaced it with an illustration that resembles Durden. An animated Almost Politically Correct Redneck video appeared on the Animeme YouTube channel in 2012.