There's a genre of internet content that never gets old, and it's "Ben Affleck photographed looking like he just remembered he left the oven on during a five-alarm fire." The man has built an entire second career out of being visibly over it, and America cannot stop zooming in.
This week's installment arrived courtesy of some awards-season event where the rest of the room was doing the standard Hollywood thing — smiling, air-kissing, pretending to enjoy tiny food — while Affleck stood there with the face of a man who just got a jury duty summons for a trial that starts tomorrow.
The internet did what it does: screenshotted, captioned, and turned him into a meme before the valet even brought the car around.
Affleck has been famous for roughly a quarter century.
He's been tabloid fodder through engagements, breakups, a Batman run that got him roasted into the sun, and a very public redemption arc that ended with him winning an Oscar for producing *Argo*.
At some point, "guy who doesn't love being photographed at a party" stops being a scandal and starts being a personality.
In interviews, he's been pretty blunt that the constant paparazzi attention wears on him.
He's talked about anxiety, about the toll of living under a lens, about how he'd rather be home with his kids.
That's a guy with a functioning BS detector at a party he didn't plan.
Some folks are convinced he's secretly miserable and his marriage is a dumpster fire.
Others point out that resting sad face is just a genetic hand he was dealt, and if you'd been Photoshopped into a meme a thousand times you'd stop performing for the cameras too.
Both camps are extremely online and neither is getting invited to the afterparty.
The real story is how quickly we've turned "man has neutral facial expression" into a national referendum on his mental state.
We did it to roughly every celebrity who has ever dared to not smile on cue.
Affleck just happens to be the current designated punching bag, and he's taking it with the energy of a guy who's already checked out and is mentally picking out a Dunkin' order.
What makes him weirdly relatable is that most of us would be that guy.
Put a camera in my face every time I stand in a corner at a work event pretending to enjoy small talk, and I'd be a meme by Tuesday.
The difference is Affleck gets paid millions and still shows up looking like he'd rather be anywhere else.
At this point, the Affleck Miserable Face Industrial Complex is basically a national pastime, and he seems to have made peace with it.
Somebody has to be the guy who refuses to fake it, and it might as well be the dude who already survived *Gigli*. **The take:** We've all decided a man's resting face is a cry for help, which says way more about us than it does about him.
Final Thoughts
Ben Affleck isn't sad — he's just the only honest person in a room full of people performing joy for a paycheck.