“Headdesk” is the universal internet symbol for frustration.
…the kind of frustration where your brain can’t process the utter hopelessness of a situation so much, that you feel compelled to rest your head on a flat surface for a while.
This phenomenon has never been perfectly translated into a real-life gesture. Until now.
https://twitter.com/MrStevenRaeburn/status/575278112721625088
The man in the picture is Australia’s prime minister, Tony Abbott.
The boy — who will now forever be immortalized as Head Desk Boy — accurately represents the collective reactions of Australians every time Abbott commits another faux pas.
The picture was taken on August 8 of last year, when the prime minister visited Seaforth Public School to speak to a Year 4K class about persuasive writing.
At one point, HDB is seen to have been staring off into space, probably wishing he was anywhere else at that moment.
Like the park. Or maybe at the dentist having a tooth extraction. Anywhere.
But then Abbott started talking. He was thrown a question by a young kid named Imogen, “What happens when people don’t agree with your point of view?”
To which he replied, “Well, that rarely happens as you know.”
He added, “You can try very hard to persuade them and sometimes you succeed, sometimes you fail. If enough people don’t agree, and if the hope of persuading them is remote, sometimes you have to accept that you just can’t do whatever it is that you wanted to do.”
While the prime minister’s wife Maggie looked lovingly on, HDB promptly replied in the most appropriate of ways.
We feel your pain, HDB.