Social media is a whole new universe. Bizarre, infinite and never ceases to surprise. So, if you’ve been spending a lot of time on the internet and using GIFs to text, you must have come across Drew Scalon’s face – famously known as ‘Blinking Guy’ or ‘Blinking White Guy’.

The viral GIF is estimated to have been used more than 1.7 billion times across the internet. It also has its own Twitter page, cool, isn’t it?

While the GIF is famous and viral, Scanlon has been using internet fame to good use by soliciting donations for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to aid with research and advocacy for the disease.

Last week, he appealed to his Twitter followers to pitch in: “If this GIF has ever brought you joy in the past, I humbly ask you to consider making a donation to the National MS Society,” he wrote on Twitter.

After his appeal, many chipped in and helped Scanlon raise more than $75,000 and break his 2019 record of nearly $34,000. The first time he used the meme to fundraise was in 2019. Overall, he’s raised more than $154,000 for the organization since 2016.

Scanlon, 35, who works as a producer at the California-based video game developer Digital Eclipse, says two of his friends, as well as members of their families, are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, also known as MS.

“If a fraction of those who have seen my goofy face donated to MS research, I have a feeling we could kick this thing in no time!” Scanlon wrote on his fundraising appeal.

That “goofy face” was a result of a moment in 2013, when he and his co-workers at the gaming site Giant Bomb were live-streaming themselves playing video games.

One of his co-workers made an “off-color” joke, and Scanlon reacted with what has now become his famous expression.

A user turned Scalon’s faced into a GIF. The meme became so famous that years later even celebrities started using it.

“It’s kind of fun to see that, but it’s also a little bit overwhelming,” he said. “At a certain point, you realize that it’s completely out of your control and that you don’t have any say in how it is used and by whom. And, you know, it’s your face — that’s pretty closely tied to your identity.”

(With inputs from Associated Press)