Celebrities as rich, famous, and talented as JAY-Z can often take on mythical qualities. When you add in the fact that JAY-Z and his wife Beyoncé don’t partake in the same social media madness that other celebrities do, thereby maintaining their celebrity status without showing us their every move on a daily basis, it’s easy to believe they’re not even really human. That’s why when photos do leak of someone like JAY-Z doing perfectly normal things, it’ll have a tendency to blow up online.
That’s exactly what happened this week when a photo of JAY-Z on a jet ski started making the rounds on Twitter. The photo is from a trip to Italy he took with Bey back in 2016, but its resurgence was perfectly timed to coincide with the Fourth of July holiday and the ever-growing meme machine. Then again, how could you not make fun of a guy wearing a helmet and a huge life vest and looking totally miserable while on a jet ski? It’s golden.
It’s not the first photo that has been made famous by people online mocking the rapper for it. The photo of him belly-flopping into the water next to a smiling, perfectly poised Beyoncé is a prime example. JAY-Z even acknowledged his relationship with the ocean in a line on “713” off the couple’s recent joint album Everything Is Love: “My first time in the ocean went exactly as you’d expect/Meanwhile you’re going hard, jumping off the top deck.”
The bottom line is the photo is hilarious, and people knew exactly and how to elevate it through memes. Here’s a selection of the best ones.
