Ben Affleck’s misery at the Grammy awards has become a meme

I think most of us would consider the Grammys a once-in-a-lifetime night out.

Rubbing shoulders with ultra-VIP celebrities? Check. Front-row seats to performances by the year’s biggest artists? Sign me up.

Even if you’re a red-carpet regular, it’s hard to believe the novelty would ever wear off. Well, that is unless you’re Ben Affleck, who looked totally uninterested throughout Sunday’s ceremony.

Having recently married pop star and actress Jennifer Lopez, it is likely that Affleck attended the exclusive event as his wife’s plus one, but it looked as if he would have rather been anywhere else. Apart from one interaction with Adrien Body where the actor considerably perked up, Affleck looked chronically bored — even as he watched legends such as Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Missy Elliott give it their all on stage.

Of course, the whole thing has been excessively memed across social media (click to slide three in Instagram below). “Whoever keeps cutting to Ben Affleck as he gets more and more exasperated, thank you,” said author and radio host Elamin Abdelmahmoud on Twitter. “Ben Affleck is every husband dragged to a work thing by his wife,” wrote another.

However, one particularly tense conversation between Affleck and JLo was caught on camera and has since gone viral. While host Trevor Noah was introducing controversial album of the year winner Harry Styles’s performance, the newlyweds could be seen bickering in the corner.

One newspaper commissioned a lip reader to transcribe the conversation, discovering that apparently Lopez told him, “Stop. Look more friendly. Look motivated.” To which Affleck replied: “I might.”

As fans debated whether this meant the honeymoon period was over — referencing another glum Affleck appearance at the premiere for Shotgun Wedding last December — JLo clapped back with an Instagram reel from the night captioned: “Always the best time with my love, my husband.”

A source has also since told Entertainment Tonight that "Jen and Ben had a fun date night out at the GRAMMYs, but they have both been very busy working on several projects, and Ben was feeling tired. He wanted to go and support Jen, but he wasn’t his usual self." They added that, “Jen had a great time and wanted Ben to be excited to be there, but she understood where he was coming from. Jen knows Ben is a great husband and they still made sure to have a good night together.”

Apparently JLo also “knows how supportive Ben is towards her and her work, but also gets that Ben is more of a homebody, and it isn’t his thing to be out at events all the time. She is appreciative of his support whether it’s while they’re out and about or just hanging at home.”

And the fans get it, “Poor Ben,” wrote commented one fan under Lopez’s Instagram post, before adding: “Don’t blame him.”