Photobombing

A man disguised as a banana "blows up" the group photo of four men in costumes

Photobombing (in German also photo bomb ) is a voluntary or involuntary action in the creation of a photo in which a person or an object pushes itself into the foreground or clearly visible in the background or attracts the viewer's attention.

The intention of such an action is often a joke against the photographer or a certain topic or simply to ruin the photo in context .

The trend towards photobombing comes from the USA and has been reinforced primarily by technology such as smartphones or other devices that enable rapid distribution on the Internet. There are websites that explicitly specialize in the photobombing phenomenon. Photographs of this kind are often created by celebrity stars, in particular, and they quickly attract a lot of attention.

A related term to photobombing is video bombing . Instead of a photograph, a video recording is disturbed here. On television, this is occasionally seen on live news broadcasts.

Examples from the media sector

Gabourey Sidibe photobombed Jake Gyllenhaal at the 82nd Academy Awards
Bill Clinton photobombed Kelly Clarkson during her performance of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" on Obama's second inauguration in 2013.
A few weeks later, Kelly Clarkson herself photobombed Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
Benedict Cumberbatch photobombed U2 at the 86th Academy Awards.
Photobombing with Joyce Ilg (video about photobombing from the red carpet at the German Actor Award 2014 )