Main image via Wired

We’ve all seen the ‘distracted boyfriend’ meme before – you know, the one with the man checking out a woman while his girlfriend stares at him – and we’ve probably laughed at the captions some people put on them.

Dis one right here pic.twitter.com/KcAWDmJxGf

— gotta$$$migraine (@gxngstawifi) 24 August 2017

Well, apparently this narrative has been around for way longer than the image. A Twitter user recently found a painting which is pretty much the 18^th century version of this meme.

I’ve found the 18th century equivalent to the distracted boyfriend meme pic.twitter.com/QDKjygVDcr

— big sue (@ELXGANZA) 16 April 2018

Painted by English artist Joshua Reynolds in 1761, the painting shows his friend, actor David Garrick, caught between two women. The smiling one in the pink dress is Comedy, and the other one is Tragedy – and she has a very familiar look on her face.

I see no difference pic.twitter.com/GtK4DwDVrz

— Robin Good fellow (@R3dLeprechaun) 16 April 2018

And people have already started making memes with it! Some contain jokes relevant to the time period, while others are just the distracted boyfriend meme with a new (or should we say old) look.

pic.twitter.com/BWAdoFbm7p

— Ailesha the Kitsune ⚧⚢☭🏴 (@KitsuneAlicia) 16 April 2018

Currently pic.twitter.com/nxzl064tri

— big sue (@ELXGANZA) 16 April 2018

Article via Mashable