Tony Hawk's COVID test turned into a perfect 'Are you Tony Hawk?' moment

An extremely 2020 moment
 By 
Tim Marcin
 on 
Tony Hawk's COVID test turned into a perfect 'Are you Tony Hawk?' moment
Tony Hawk is strangely hard to recognize. Credit: Getty Images for IMDb

Skating legend Tony Hawk has achieved the perfect level of fame. He's famous enough to be rich and afforded access to cool stuff, but not so famous that he can't do normal things. Hawk is the sort of famous where you go hey, wasn't that...just after he walks away.

Hawk has famously shared stories of his non-fame for some time now. Basically, he keeps running into people who wonder if he's Tony Hawk, or if he knows Tony Hawk, or does he know his name is the same as a famous skater? But now, on the very last day of the year, Hawk shared the most 2020 moment. Naturally, it was an encounter from a COVID testing line, and it quickly began trending on Twitter, which loves to revel in his ability to fly under the radar.

These tales from Hawk are always great because he takes it all in stride. He clearly understands fame is funny and fickle. Here are a few personal favorites from years past.


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Hawk has said he gets recognized pretty often, but it's not always good enough to warrant a tweet.

"It happens actually more often than I write about, but it's usually not a really funny interaction," Hawk told Business Insider this year. "I think sometimes people, I assume, get excited, and they're trying to register it... so they'll just sort of say things without really giving them critical thought. I think that's usually what ends up happening where it's like 'you're, uh, T-T-Tom Brady!'"

close-up of man's face
Tim Marcin
Associate Editor, Culture

Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).

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