Clueless Dad Texts Daughter ‘Who Is Nick Jonas?’ While Sitting Beside Him on an Airplane

(Getty Images | Christopher Polk)

A dad and his teenage daughter might represent the widest gap in pop-culture appreciation possible, and Florida college student Deanna Hall and her father Louis are a textbook example.

Louis had no idea who “Nick Jonas” was prior to his flight on a Delta Airlines flight on Aug. 27, 2017. Little did he know he was seated beside the superstar in first class that day. And the ensuing text exchange between Louis and his Jonas Brothers super-fan daughter went viral.

After noticing there was a lot of frenzied whispering around his neighbor on the plane, an innocuous-looking, handsome young man in a black hoodie, black hat, and sunglasses, Louis texted his daughter.

“Who is Nick Jonas?” Louis asked.

Nick Jonas at the screening of "Ferdinand" in Los Angeles, California, on Dec. 10, 2017 (©Getty Images | Matt Winkelmeyer)

Deanna, then a freshman at the University of South Florida in Tampa, hid her exasperation and replied patiently. “A famous singer,” she wrote back, adding, “I love him. He was part of the Jonas Brothers.”

At that moment, Louis knew he was onto something good. “He is sitting beside me on the plane,” the dad replied.

At this revelation, Deanna’s tone suddenly escalated from calm to full-on capital-letter-led frenzy. “SEND PIC,” she demanded. “TAKE A PIC WITH HIM. TELL HIM I LOVE HIM,” Deanna continued, text-shouting her excitement at her mystified father through the ether. “GET AN AUTOGRAPH.”

Louis happily complied, sending Deanna not one but two selfies; one of Nick alone, and one with Louis grinning broadly next to the singer. Deanna, having been a fan of the Jonas Brothers growing up, posted the entire text exchange alongside her dad’s selfies on Twitter.

“When your dad sits next to Nick Jonas on an airplane and has no idea who he is,” the college student captioned, and the internet fell apart laughing. To date, Deanna’s post has been retweeted over 46,000 times and liked over 185,000 times.

Louis, perhaps unsurprisingly, has received just as much love in the comments section as the affable singer sitting next to him. According to the Daily Mail, a Delta Airlines flight attendant even contacted Deanna directly to praise her dad.

“I was the flight attendant on this yesterday!” Taylor Lindsey said. “Your dad was so nice!”

As it turns out, recognizing Nick Jonas may not have been quite as complicated as Louis originally made out. “He had a coffee from Starbucks,” Louis later regaled on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “and on the cup it said ‘Nick Jonas.’”

“I was so jealous,” Deanna chimed in. “I wanted to be there!”

Ellen being Ellen, the mischievous television host had a trick up her sleeve; it was that exact moment that Nick Jonas himself sidled up beside the father-daughter duo and said, “I love this story.”

You can watch the video clip below for Deanna’s shocked response in all its glory:

According to news.com.au, it later transpired that Louis had failed to get his daughter the coveted autograph. But Louis’s adorable cluelessness and epic viral selfies ended up scoring a real-life meeting with the singer himself.