Meet Dick Butt, an obscure-ish internet meme that originated from a webcomic in 2006, spread to 4chan, then Reddit, then the rest of the internet, and ended up affixed to the side of Ferrari's Formula 1 car this week. This is the story of Dick Butt's incredible journey.

Last month, UPS—a sponsor of the Ferrari team—launched a campaign that gave fans a chance to see a tiny version of their Facebook profile picture on their favorite race car. Just upload the photo, allow yourself to be subsumed into the global shipping giant, and your face might be included on a digital mosaic of the company's logo that would be added to the car before this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix. Naturally, someone submitted Dick Butt for consideration.

And whatever human or bot running quality control on the submissions let Dick Butt pass right through, like Mario Andretti crossing the finish line. Go, Dick Butt, go! Here's the logo as initially presented by UPS, archived on this Reddit thread.

And here's a pixellated closeup of Dick Butt's spot at the apex of the P's curve.

Unfortunately—perhaps because of its popularity on Reddit—UPS discovered what it had done and uploaded a new, Dick Butt-less version of the logo to Facebook today, writing, "Thank you to our social community for bringing to our attention the inappropriate image that was submitted to our special version of the UPS shield. We have since recreated the mosaic and can ensure that all other photos will still appear on the Ferrari car this weekend."

But some simple zooming in on photos of the decal that was placed on the car reveal that Dick Butt did adorn the competition Ferrari—at least for a time. Here's the above image, of Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen holding the logo before sticking it on, enlarged and brightened to show detail.

See? There's Dick Butt! UPS claims that they've taken him off the car and replaced him; if you're watching the race this weekend, look closely and see if they've kept their word.

Images via UPS/Facebook. Contact the author at andy@gawker.com.