Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
From a young age, I’ve found the face of actor-comedian Kevin James to be weirdly comforting. On weeknights, my mother and I would watch reruns of the CBS show King of Queens together as a part of our primetime network lineup. It was one of the few adult sitcoms—besides Reba—that she deemed appropriate for me to watch, outrageous in its humor but not too crude or profane.
A part of me believes that my mother secretly related to main protagonist Doug Heffernan’s (James) more competent and unabashedly cranky spouse Carrie, played to perfection by Leah Remini. My mom was much more vocal, however, about how much she loved James, his affable persona, and knack for physical comedy. Along with Cliff Huxtable (woof) and Laura Ingalls’ hot dad, he was a top-tier television husband in our household, even if he was a downright infuriating spouse on-screen.
It seems that the internet has come to appreciate James’ likeness, too—or maybe they always have. If you look on Twitter (now called X) right now, you can see the Grown Ups actor in a range of Kevin Hart-style reaction memes that have everyone reminiscing about his mass-consumed but generally underrated CBS show, conveniently during the series’ 25th anniversary.