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Seminole man and ’Stranger Things’ actor becomes a recurring meme

Joe Davison had a recurring role alongside Paul Reiser in Season 2. Stills from those scenes are now part of online jokes.
 
This is one of numerous memes using still shots from Joe Davison's "Stranger Things" scenes.
This is one of numerous memes using still shots from Joe Davison's "Stranger Things" scenes. [ Courtesy of Facebook ]
Published Sept. 2, 2020|Updated Sept. 8, 2020

SEMINOLE — Joe Davison hoped a recurring role on Season 2 of Stranger Things would lead to fame.

He just didn’t think it would happen like this.

Still shots of Davison’s character from the Netflix series have become recurring online memes.

They seem to poke fun at him, but Davison is fine with the treatment.

“They are hilarious,” the 45-year-old Seminole resident said. “And I am finding them shared everywhere. They’re viral. It’s great.”

Davison appeared in four episodes of Stranger Things as “Nerdy Tech,” serving as right-hand man to Paul Reiser’s character Sam Owens, who is charged with containing the fallout the Upside Down had on Hawkins Lab.

His character and other lab employees are ultimately devoured by the Demogorgon in an elevator.

Joe Davison's scenes from "Stranger Things" have been used as memes. [ Courtesy of Facebook ]

One of the memes shows Davison in the forefront with those lab employees. The text reads, “The ‘Top Men’ Indiana Jones Was Talking About,” a reference to the iconic line from the end of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark and possibly the ineptness the characters portrayed in Stranger Things.

“It’s calling me an idiot,” Davison said with a laugh. “Are they wrong? It’s a meme to use when you know you sent the wrong guys to the job.”

Such memes date back months, he said. Friends occasionally happen upon them and send them Davison’s way.

They seem to originate on Instagram fan pages for the series, said Davison, best known locally for writing and starring in the killer clown splatter flick 100 Tears.

Among his favorites is the one that shows his character speaking closely into a microphone as though rapping. The text reads, “I said a hip-hop, hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop,” which are the lyrics to Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang.

“I’m told someone has put music to that one,” Davison said.

Still, other memes tell inappropriate jokes using his face as part of the punch line.

“Whatever man,” Davison said. “Whatever keeps me out there.”