Young Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios has been making a name for himself at Wimbledon by being; 1. Quite good at tennis, and 2. Also a bit of a naughty boy.
Kyrgios has no shortage of detractors, but he also has heaps of fans. And like all fandoms, Nick's likes to show its appreciation by smearing condiments on their faces.
It all started with this exchange on Kyrgios's Facebook page.
This, apparently, was enough to drive more people to try the same thing.
And now children are getting involved. It's like planking but disgusting. Or the ice bucket challenge without any of the inherent goodness.
But plenty of people have pointed out that the new trend is a little reminiscent of blackface.
WTF is up with Oz peeps sending blackface pics of themselves to @NickKyrgios to support him at tennis?! I don't get it on any level...
@MarioLe0 have you seen that fans of Kyrgios are covering their face with vegemite and basically going blackface? What a time to be alive.
My 2 pence on the Kyrgios thing: Dumb, uncomfortably close to blackface, but no malintent; no one trying to assume/degrade "blackness."
Why are Nick Kyrgios' fans smearing their faces with Vegemite and Nutella? Good intentions or not, it looks like Blackface... #nobueno
The guy who started the craze, 17-year-old Mitchell McConachy says he just wanted to grab Kyrgios's attention.
"I was just in bed and wanting a response from Nick so I said that I'd cover my face with vegemite!" he told BuzzFeed News. "I didn't think he would've replied and I had no intension for it to come across as black facing/racism."
McConachy says he doesn't want the trend to spread if it's going to cause offence.
"I'd love to see it start trending but if people are going to take it as being racist in the 21st century, then don't worry about it."
He also says that this shows a side of Kyrgios that isn't always depicted in the media, where the young ace has been under fire lately for his off-court behaviour.
"He's such a nice lad to his fans," McConachy says.
Meanwhile, Nick seems pretty comfortable with the whole thing.
So this has sort of taken off... fans covering their faces in weird and wonderful stuff, this time delicious... http://t.co/lMeMXz5m6X
Kyrgios will take on Richard Gasquet in the fourth round at Wimbledon on Monday night in a re-match of their epic battle from 2014. Last year, Kyrgios stunned Gasquet, rallying from two sets down to defeat the Frenchman.
For his part, McConachy says he'll be up watching. Probably not with Vegemite on his face though.