The Most Interesting Man in the World

He didn't always become a meme, but when he did, he preferred to dominate the entire internet.

In 2006, a silver-bearded Jonathan Goldsmith appeared in Dos Equis commercials as a suave polymath who had lived a thousand adventures and rejected none of them. By 2007, the internet had extracted his essence into a two-panel format that would define a generation of conditional brags. "I don't always X, but when I do, Y." The structure was irresistible—it let anyone claim aspirational sophistication while admitting to perfectly mundane behavior.

The meme thrived because it democratized coolness. Suddenly everyone could channel worldly wisdom while confessing to eating cereal for dinner or procrastinating on deadlines. The format accumulated over 96,000 variations, each one a tiny monument to the gap between who we are and who we'd like to pretend to be at parties.

Goldsmith himself embraced his memehood, conducting a Reddit AMA in 2013 with the bemused grace of someone who understood he'd transcended advertising. He stayed thirsty, as promised, even as his digital doppelganger became more famous than any beer commercial could have anticipated.

On March 9, 2016, Dos Equis launched their most interesting man into space—literally. A Super Bowl commercial depicted his one-way journey to Mars, officially retiring the character. A Spanish-speaking successor appeared, but the original's memetic legacy had long since escaped the brand's control.

He didn't always die, but when he did, he made sure we'd remember the format.