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It’s been 10 years since iconic Antoine Dodson ‘hide your kid, hide your wife’ meme


It’s been 10 years since this interview (Picture: WAFF-48 News)

If you want a reminder just how fast time is going in general we’re here to let you know this week marks the 10th anniversary of the iconic ‘hide your kids, hide your wife’ meme.

Yes, really.

Antoine Dodson shot to fame after appearing in a news segment after a man attempted to assault his sister by climbing into her bedroom window, before being chased off by Antoine.

After the interview by Elizabeth Gentle, a reporter for NBC affiliate WAFF-48 News, went viral it was ‘songified’ (as in, autotuned and cut to fit a loose melody) and became the ‘Bed Intruder Song’, catapulting Antoine to international stardom.

Who knew that when a news team gathered to speak with the Huntsville man, who is now 34 years old, in late July 2010 his animated response would turn into such a memorable moment we’re still talking about today?

Asked for his thoughts, he addressed viewers down the camera: ‘Well, obviously we have a rapist in Lincoln Park. He’s climbing in your windows, he’s snatching your people up, trying to rape them.

‘So y’all need to hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husband cause they raping everybody out here.’

He went on: ‘We got your t-shirt…you’re so dumb, you are really dumb, for real.

‘You don’t have to come and confess…we’re looking for you, we gonna find you. So you can run tell that, homeboy.’

Days later the moment was transformed into an autotuned song by The Gregory Brothers, with nearly 148million views on YouTube today.

It managed to make its way onto the Billboard Hot 100, while the original video was YouTube’s top clip for 2010 (when not including major label music videos). So there’s that.

While many felt the meme was inappropriate, seeing as it originated from a serious news segment on a woman who had been assaulted, and her brother who was worried about her, with people debating whether it was funny or just offensive, Dodson was able to benefit from the fame the clip brought him.

After speaking with BET for its I Went Viral series two years ago, he recalled moving to Los Angeles to try his luck in Tinseltown, with a reality TV show announced that would follow his foray into fame – however they eventually moved home to Huntsville in Alabama.

Speaking about capitalising on the event, he said he thought: ‘Yeah, we’re gonna sell this because we’re trying to get out of the ‘hood.’

He went on to sell merchandise related to the meme and made enough money from the Bed Intruder Song that he was able to move his family out of council housing.

In the 2018 interview, Antoine revealed he’s since got his commercial driver’s license and also a license as a substitute teacher, working with Huntsville schools. At the time he also shared that had a ‘beautiful baby boy’.

Antoine went on to say that his 15 minutes of fame (well, maybe not 15 minutes, seeing as we’re still talking about it now, aren’t we) was worth any bad experiences because it allowed him to ‘make money to move so we don’t go through anything scary again’.

The viral star now has more than 17,000 followers on Instagram and keeps us up to date with his happenings – most recently sharing a video from hospital after contracting Covid-19, before being discharged and heading into quarantine where he appears to be on the mend.





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