"It's Richmond, baby": the true story behind the viral Instagram account

On July 11, @itsrichmondbaby, an anonymous Instagram account, posted its first meme — a design 100% stolen from a local artist (scroll to the last slide) with the words:

State of play: Two weeks, more than 600 posts and over 9,800 followers later, the account has gone (locally) viral, inspiring spoof accounts, hate comments and declarations that it's so over and long-since stopped being funny.

Much like the first meme posted, the person behind @itsrichmondbaby, who asked to remain anonymous to maintain the mystery of the account, tells Axios he's written none of them. After the first post, followers started writing their own and sending them in.

• He just shares them as they come, and they've come fast and furious in the 17 days since the account launched.

What they're saying: Crud City, the name Richmond artist Chase Beasley goes by online and whose original post inspired the account, tells Axios he likes the memes and sees them as "lowkey exposure."

The original concept came from something Beasley overheard a woman say to her young daughter outside of Ellwood Thompson's one day: "It's Richmond, baby, everybody's got style."

• He used "Doug" characters because the show setting was based on Richmond.

As for @itsrichmondbaby, he says he knows his 15 minutes are up, and that's just fine with him.

• "At the end of the day, it's just a silly meme page on the internet. No reason to take any of it serious," he said.

Our thought bubble: The whole thing is the most Richmond thing ever:

• It's Richmond, baby. Everybody's got love for you, until they don't.