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About
He Tryna Ignore It is a catchphrase most commonly associated with a reaction image of a white dog with its eyes closed sitting in front of a fire captioned, "he tryna ignore it 😭," and a screenshot of NBA super-fan Jimmy Goldstein watching LeBron James play basketball, featuring a comment from a user reading, "He tryna ignore it," suggesting James is trying to ignore Goldstein because of how perceivably creepy he looks.
The dog reaction image was first uploaded online as early as January 2026, and the LeBron James meme was originally uploaded in late April 2026, going viral on TikTok shortly after. The dog meme spread over the following months, inspiring redraws, edits and image macros that recontextualize it.
Origin
On January 3rd, 2026, TikToker @jaygupski posted a video of a dog sitting with his eyes closed in front of a fire on a stove as someone cooks food. A caption reading, "He tryna ignore it 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭," has been added to the bottom of the video. The post gained nearly 300 likes in four months.
It is unclear who originally uploaded the raw video of the dog. One of the earliest uploads of the original, caption-free video is by Instagram user smolfrenz on December 10th, 2025, although this appears to be a reupload.
@jaygupskiSpread
A cropped screenshot of @jaygupski's video, showing the dog, the fire and the added "he tryna ignore it" caption, spread online over the following months in mid-2026, including on sites like Reddit and Tenor.
On April 29th, 2026, Instagram user theunfunniestguyyouknow posted a screenshot of a video posted by an unclear TikToker showing Jimmy Goldstein watching LeBron James play basketball. The screenshot shows the top comment, reading, "He tryna ignore it," along with another comment suggesting that Goldstein looks creepy in the image. The post gained over 25,000 likes in a month.
On May 23rd, X user @rtzvv reposted the meme, repeating the caption in their post, garnering over 18,000 likes in three days.
On May 24th, 2026, the same X user posted the image again, this time writing, "having a crush," garnering over 31,000 likes in two days.
On May 25th, X user @PJT_KIN posted a version of the meme reading, "When I do a Google search for a character I'm hyped about and it suggests 'death,'" garnering over 245,000 likes and 31,000 reposts in a day.
On May 26th, 2026, Redditor KaidoPklevel posted a recreation of this meme to the /r/me_irl subreddit, garnering over 200 upvotes in under a day.
Various Examples
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