Mark Zuckerberg Claims His Infamous Sunscreen-Plastered Face Was an Attempted Disguise

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a recent interview that he plastered his face with sunscreen while on vacation in Hawaii in an attempt to disguise himself from photographers. The resulting creepy pictures have become memes comparing the social media Master of the Universe to everything from mimes to the Joker.

The Daily Mail reports that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was spotted surfing in Hawaii in July. The images of Zuckerberg quickly went viral as the tech giant CEO appeared to have completely plastered his face white with sunscreen.

Now Zuckerberg claims that he “put a ton of sunscreen on my face” in a plan that “backfired” to avoid being recognized by paparazzi. Zuckerberg stated that he was “happy to give the internet some laughs” as a result of his failed disguise.

During an Instagram live session with Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, Zuckerberg stated: “I really should have thought that one through more. I noticed there was this paparazzi guy following us and, so I was like, ‘Oh I don’t want him to recognize me so you know what I’m gonna do? I’m just gonna put a ton of sunscreen on my face.”

Zuckerberg added: “The delta between how cool you think you look and the worst photo a paparazzi can take is pretty funny… No one needs to be wearing that much sunscreen. If someone wants to post a sunscreen meme, it’s cool. I’m happy to give the internet some laughs. I’m glad people can laugh about it. I laugh about it and I think it’s pretty funny.”

Memes quickly spread across the internet with many comparing Zuckerberg to a mime, Batman villain the Joker, and a lizard.

Zuckerberg previously spoke about the pictures in September, telling employees during a Q&A session: “I’m not a person who’s under the illusion that I look particularly cool at any point with what I’m doing. But when you’re eFoiling down the coast of Hawaii, and it’s beautiful and it just feels like it’s awesome — and then you come back online and you see that’s the photo, that’s what you look like — it’s like, OK. Alright. That’s maybe quite a bit more sunscreen than I thought I was wearing.”

Zuckerberg added: “I’m not going to apologize for wearing too much sunscreen. I think that sunscreen is good, and I stand behind that.”