‘Mark Johnson’—TV Station’s No Context Tweet Inspires Wave of Jokes, Memes

Mark Johnson, a sports anchor at KTVB in Boise, Idaho, inspired a wave of memes after the network shared his bio with no context.

Late on Tuesday night, KTVB shared Johnson’s bio on Twitter, which simply said: “Mark Johnson.” The tweet has been liked more than 5,000 times and retweeted more than 1,500 times.

Johnson replied to the inexplicable tweet “Uh…..this is awesome? And….huh?” followed by: “This is pretty hilarious but I’m pretty sure my teenage daughters had something to do with this. All I can say is that I WILL get them back for this! (But probably not).”

Johnson’s bio was first published in 2016 but was updated on Tuesday evening, though it is unclear why KTVB shared it now.

Twitter users were delighted by the seemingly random tweet and were quick to create Mark Johnson memes, including Johnson himself, who simply tweeted “Mark Johnson.”

@mmandersonxo on Twitter shared a meme using a headshot of Johnson, and labeled his face into two sections—both labeled “Mark Johnson.” Like the original tweet, @mmandersonxo simply captioned her tweet with the anchor’s name.

Twitter user @BsuTracker shared the “it ain’t much but it’s honest work” meme credited to @MattsIdeaShop, with Johnson’s face edited into the image and “honest work” changed to “Mark Johnson.”

Twitter user @noliver2003 shared the “I bet he’s thinking about other women” meme in which the man is generally depicted thinking about something topical (other than women) and edited it to appear as though the man is thinking about Mark Johnson.

@SpudCrusty on Twitter shared the Trade Offer meme edited to say “I receive Mark Johnson” and “You receive Mark Johnson,” again with the news anchor’s face edited in.

According to the tongue-in-cheek bio, Johnson is an anchor at KTVB in Boise, Idaho.

He spent five years at KTVB between 1983 and 1988, before heading to WISN-TV in Milwaukee. In 1995 he went to WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh where he covered the Steelers in the 1996 Super Bowl.

In 1996, Johnson “was given the opportunity to return to his favorite place on earth and was named KTVB’s Sports Director.”

The bio also says that Johnson “married the former Chris Plishka (from Baraboo, Wisconsin) in 1992.

“They are avid Green Bay Packers fans and have passed the allegiance down to Mark’s twins Hannah and Lindsey and now onto their teenage twin daughters Alexa and Grace. Go Pack!”

It says his goals are to “spend some time on long e-bike rides with his wife, also with his daughters on college football weekends and with his first grandson born in 2020 in Seattle.”

An illustration of social media apps on a smart phone. TV anchor Mark Johnson has inspired a wave of memes after his bio was shared on Twitter with no context. Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty