When it was tak­en, the pho­to would have been a fun­ny and unusu­al pic­ture of three ter­ri­fied girls and a doofy-look­ing stingray. Today, the pho­to can be labelled a pho­to­bomb, which implies a nar­ra­tive of sur­rep­ti­tious sab­o­tage, con­nects the stingray to a whole tribe of obnox­ious pranksters, and makes the ray look like his smile might con­tain a hint of frat-boy­ish dis­so­lu­tion. We’ve come so far.

(via The Stingray Pho­to­bomb Explained : The New York­er)