The American man who posted a photo of Marina Bay Sands on Facebook and said it was in Chattanooga, Tennessee in the United States, has started a GoFundMe page to crowdfund money to pay for his holiday to Singapore.

Post a meme, get a lot of responses, cash in a little

The culmination of what was essentially posting a dank meme on the internet and generating a deluge of responses from people here has taken an expected turn.

The 19-year-old Tennessee teen, Shaun Fontenot, extended his hand into the ether and asked for some loose change.

All in the name of good fun, of course.

He has named his crowdfunding page, "A trip to explore Singapore and all it's glory."

Did it for a laugh

In response to media queries asking about why he put up a picture of MBS and mislabelled it in the first place, Fontenot said it was "just for a laugh".

He added: "I said it simply to give the people in my city a good laugh, because we have nothing like that here."

"I never expected it to get so big, much less reach Singapore, but I'm glad that it has and many are inviting me over and would like me to visit, so I've started a GoFundMe in order to visit Singapore after the pandemic!"

Raised at least a hundred bucks

In the past three days, Fontenot has raised about US$75, or about S$101.

The money came from seven people who obviously saw the lighter side of this adventure into internet land.

Fontenot, who works in construction as a roofer, also said some Singaporeans have reached out to him with warm messages following the meme responses, as they were tickled by the fanfare and funny content.

Fontenot said he has never been to Singapore or even knew about the country before this avalanche of memes flooded in onto his Facebook page: "I haven't been there, nor did I have any knowledge of Singapore prior to my post."

"However, many people have told me so much about it and showed me so many beautiful pictures of it that I just have to pay it a visit!"

Fontenot also said he was informed by a Singaporean about the costs of exploring the country and how much it costs to be put up at MBS.

And that was how he came up with the US$10,000 crowdfunding target.

Top photo via Shaun Fontenot GoFundMe & Facebook