15 Viral Photos That Everyone Forgot About

We see them in our everyday life whenever we open up that Google tab on our computers, or simply pick up our phone. We're bombarded with them every time we peek at Twitter or post to Facebook. Hell, we now can even see them whenever we decided to Snapchat at our favorite friends. They're viral photographs that can sometimes spread like a venereal disease. Sometimes, if the photographs are lucky, they become viral memes and the world suddenly takes notice in the most hilarious way possible. This isn't always a good thing for the people in the photos, but whatever - it's a real hoot for us. There are some viral photos that turn out to be fakes, which can be both tragic and disappointing at the same time. Here are 15 viral photos that we all completely forgot about.

15 Man Soothing Ailing Pup

Back in 2012, a photographer captured a touching and heartbreaking photo of a man soothing his sick dog in Lake Superior. The man in question is John Unger and the pup was named Schoep who was 19-years old at the time the picture was shot. Schoep had serious arthritis, which caused him to have trouble sleeping so John found a way to soothe his ailing pup by taking him into the lake in order to lull him to sleep. It was painstakingly clear that John loved his dog beyond all comprehension and would do anything to ease his pain, including staying in the water, holding his dog while he sleeps. “John lives for this dog, and for the dog's comfort,” photographer Hannah Stonehouse Hudson told the Huffington Post after her photo went viral. “My mother has a saying, 'Everything is for the comfort and convenience of the Dog.' John is a prime example of this.” So very beautiful.

14 Seriously Hot Young Justin Trudeau

We all know that Canadian Prime Mister Justin Trudeau is a seriously handsome and brilliant man. He's the exact opposite of everything the U.S. president is. But a few months ago, a photograph of a young Trudeau caught fire and the Internet went insanely ballistic. I mean, LOOK AT HIM IN ALL HIS DREAMY GLORY. IT'S LIKE HIS ABS WERE CHISELED BY A GREEK GOD AND HIS EYEBROW IS BREAKING OUR HEARTS. Twitter was aflutter with comments and googly eyes: “I'm just gonna look at this picture of young Justin Trudeau every time I need some more testosterone,” said @mcparty_. “Young Justin Trudeau could run me over with a semi and I'd say thank you.” Said @mrs_robinson0. Even though he's still seriously hot on a completely different level, it's always fun to just peer at a young Trudeau for a while.

13 Creepy "Disaster Girl"

Zoe Roth wasn't that old when she was dubbed “Disaster Girl” after a photo of her watching a neighbor house burn went viral. Her father was the one who shot the photo with his new digital camera as onlookers from around the block watched the blaze burn (turns out, the house actually belonged to the local fire department and they had used it for training exercises) as firefighters even offered to let children in the neighborhood hose down the controlled flames. The Roth family was simply observing everything from across the street when Zoe's father took a random picture of her peeking over her shoulder at him. Her suspicious looking gaze seemed to set the internet on fire in a matter of minutes once the photo was uploaded. Zoe, now 16, still finds it hilarious.

12 Swimming Pups

Photographer Seth Casteel won numerous awards for the set of photos that featured dogs swimming underwater in pools. The dog in this particular picture happens to be Casteel's own dog Rocco, a 7-year old Boston Terrier. Rocco, along with over 80 other dogs, were featured in Casteel's collection of photos back in 2012 and the attention they received was something Casteel had never experienced before. After the photos were posted to Reddit, people all over the world went crazy over the silly playfulness of the pictures. In one single day, Casteel had become an internet sensation. “I woke up to a bunch of money in my bank account,” the photographer explained to The Huffington Post during an interview where he said many people had ordered prints of his images. Sometimes going viral can really save a person.

11 Photo Bomber Of The Decade

Imagine heading out to the woods for a simple engagement photoshoot, only to get photobombed by mother nature herself. Well, at least mother nature in the form of a hungry squirrel. This is what happened when Dorota and Marcin Karpowicz of BDFK Photography took to the Banff National Park in order to hold an engagement shoot for soon-to-be newlyweds Kelin Flanagan and Spencer Taubner. As the couple sat down in front of a vista and kissed for the camera, squirrels began to gather around them in order to get some nuts that hikers had left behind on the trail. “Somebody left nuts over there,” Marcin explained. “so we just waited until a squirrel picked up the nuts.” Once one did, they shot off around 50 images until they captured the perfect one.

10 Taking Down Osama Bin Laden

It was one of the most memorable moments of President Barack Obama's reign: On May 1^, 2011, President Obama arranged a mission to take down public enemy number 1, Osama bin Laden, in a dangerous raid. In the picture, Obama, along with Vice President Joe Biden and members of the national-security team, are receiving an update on the mission itself. They were watching the scene unfold on the screens in front of them while listening to the firefight going down over audio. As we all know now, the mission was successful and bin Laden was killed during the raid. The picture of what was going on in the situation room quickly went viral as people stared endlessly at Obama's intense face and took note to the expression Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was wearing and the position of her hand.

9 Fake Turtle That Freaked Everyone Out

Back in 2012, a captivating image of a massive tortoise riding on the bed of a truck while strapped down went viral and freaked a lot of people out. The story was that it was a tortoise mutant that was the result of a radiation nuclear plant disaster in Japan. You can see Japanese onlookers gathered along the side of the road, peering in wonder as the animal passed by. Too bad it's not real. The picture was actually a screen shot of the 2006 Japanese movie Gamera the Brave, a movie about a giant tortoise (duh). Someone decided to post the photo and claim that the turtle was a mutant, but then the story started to shift whenever the photo popped up. One example was a story that the picture was of “the world's largest tortoise found in the Amazon river, its age around 529/height-59/Weight-800 pounds". Apparently, people can be fooled that easily.

8 Grumpy Cat

It's the face that launched an entire franchise. Her name in real life is actually Tardar Sauce, but the world knows her as “Grumpy Cat”. The nickname came from the fact that she seemingly has a permanent scowl plastered on her cute little face, which is caused by feline dwarfism and an unfortunate under bite. After a photo of the irritated looking cat was posted on Reddit by the brother of the owner, Tarder Sauce became an overnight sensation in 2012. She suddenly was not only just a meme for grumps everywhere, but her face started appearing on merchandise, which included tee-shirts and mugs, and she started making the rounds on daytime and nighttime shows. Soon, she was starring in commercials and became the official spokescat of Friskies cat food. In 2014, she starred in a Lifetime movie titled Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever and was voiced by actress Aubrey Plaza.

7 McKayla Maroney "Meh"

Sometimes it pays to come in second. Back in 2012 when she was a part of the Olympic championship gymnastics team dubbed “The Fierce Five,” gymnast McKayla Maroney took home the silver medal for the vault finals. A photograph was shot of her clearly not looking all too impressed with her silver medal, and the pic quickly went viral. Tumblr even started a blog called “McKayla is not impressed”. The image was photoshopped millions of times that included McKayla not being impressed with other famous places or situations. McKayla turned the meme into gold when she went on to make fun of herself and the face on numerous shows, and even stood next to then President Obama making the same face in the Oval office with him. It took the top spot on Yahoo's list of “Most Viral Photos” back in 2012.

6 Superhero Window Washers

It first started in London - window washers at a particular children's hospital dressed as super heroes in order to give the young children who were ill a nice little treat. It was such a hit that America even caught on. This particular image was shot at Chicago's Lurie Children's Hospital where the window washers dressed up as Spiderman, Batman, Superman, and Iron Man as they scaled the windows during their shifts. “It was a very cool experience. To see the kids"reactions was just awesome,” mother Laura Malooley said of the wonderful surprise. “To do something like this is just so unique and so special. I bet they'll be talking about it for a couple weeks.” Malooley's young son is a patient at the hospital and she said he was overjoyed at the sight.

5 Viral Running Bubble Kid

To this day, no one knows who the girl in the picture is or who shot the photo that went viral back in 2009. The picture is of a young girl in a yellow jacket who is dashing through a yard while holding a bottle of bubbles in her hand. The expression that the camera caught was an instant classic since she looked like she was running for her life FROM the bubbles themselves. After the photo was uploaded, people started photoshopping her running away from dangerous situations. Buzzfeed even did a photoshop challenge inviting their readers to photoshop the bubble girl themselves. The end results were freaking hilarious (especially the one of her running from the T-Rex in Jurassic Park). It was one of the most searched memes back in 2009.

4 "Please Don't Touch Us"

Back in 2012, a photo of a stingray photobombing three girls spread like wildfire across the internet. The terrified looking girls were standing in the crystal clear water while the stingray appears to be hugging the girls in the photo as onlookers laughed. The photo itself was actually snapped five years before it went viral while the trio was on a spring-break cruise in the Cayman Islands and a man was actually standing behind them holding up the stingray for effect. It was pictures like this that actually helped give birth to the word “photobomb”. The girls had tried to get the picture on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, but it was apparently over looked by an intern probably so the girls didn't get a call back for it (this was after the photo was shot, not when it went viral years later). Too bad.

3 Fake 9/11 Picture

Upon first laying eyes on this image, horrific memories of that devastatingly fatal morning on September 11, 2001 start flooding back. This image features a tourist standing on the observation deck of the World Trade Center seconds before the attack was actually a fake. Many photos like this one started surfacing across the net, which is actually devastating to those who were there who lived through it. It also tarnishes the memory of those people who lost loved ones during the attack. The man in the photo was identified as a Hungarian tourist named Peter Guzli, who took the photo back in 1997. Guzli claimed he photoshopped the picture “as a joke” to only share with friends, but it spread across the internet rather quickly. The picture was identified as a hoax due to inconsistencies in the shot itself (like no camera at that time would have survived after the collapse of the towers. Also, that day was warm and the man is dressed as if it's winter. Those are just a couple of many inconsistencies about the shot).

2 Sexy Convict

Ah yes, the world knows who the hell Jeremy Meeks is now. But a couple of years ago, the man was just “super hot mugshot criminal dude”. Meeks' mugshot went viral in the summer of 2014 when Meeks was arrested in Stockton, California on five weapons charge and one gang charge. Shortly after Meeks served his time in prison, he was signed by a top modeling agency and started walking the runway in numerous fashion shows during fashion weeks in Paris and New York City. Since then, he has become a millionaire and has successfully put a life of crime behind him, all thanks to that mugshot. You think he would have found the success he has now had he NOT been a criminal? You'd like to think so, but with those cheekbones and icy blue eyes, chances are some model scout would have found him even if the cops hadn't first.

1 Superbowl "Take This Photo Down Now" Beyonce

Four years ago, Beyonce's publicist contacted Buzzfeed and asked them to take down a very, VERY unflattering photo of Beyonce as she performed the halftime show during the Super Bowl years back. And, of course, the Internet when absolutely nuts. Instead of obliging the publicist's request, the photo went viral so fast, that there were memes of the photo that slammed Twitter only a couple hours later. I mean, seriously, who in their right mind would ask the freaking internet to remove an unflattering shot? That just makes it way worse for the subject in question. And this subject happens to be queen Bey. Of course, photoshop experts stepped in and did their best to make the picture all the more worse (like turning her green and making her look like the Hulk). It was pure magic that won't soon be forgotten.