But just as Trump's first speech to the United Nations on Wednesday was deemed "extraordinary" by the Washington Post, those fascinated by the back of Kelly's hand have made extraordinary efforts to figure out what passed through the mind behind it.
The first problem: It's unclear exactly when in the speech Kelly facepalmed.
Other photos that day show him with hand on chin, or leaning forward attentively, or checking his watch.
Some assumed Kelly must have covered his eyes during one of the most remarkable lines in Trump's speech: "The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea." But that's an assumption based on nothing.
Trump's prepared, 40-some-minute-long speech ranged across topics from human rights to Cuba, and ended on a note of "harmony and friendship, not conflict and strife". Kelly presumably listened to every line.
On the front page of Reddit, users tried to determine the exact time of the photo by inspecting Kelly's watch. They zoomed in and came up with 10.20am, which is about when Trump was speaking of destruction and calling North Korea's leader "Rocket Man" - at least according to a timestamped CNN video of the speech.
But Reddit is not exactly known for atomic-level precision. Its users infamously botched attempts to track down suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, for example.
Others attempted to extract the time from EXIF metadata in the image. (Many digital cameras append a timestamp, assuming the photographer sets her clock correctly.) A reporter for the Toronto Star used data from the Associated Press, which distributed the photo, and concluded Kelly must have facepalmed several seconds before Trump threatened to destroy North Korea - just as the President was telling world leaders: "No nation on Earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles." By Thursday, Axios AM had labelled the reporter's detective work the "tweet du jour", noting that Kelly's reactions to his boss "have become a fascination for photographers". But amateur sleuthing only gets you so far.
The photographer who took the famous image, Mary Altaffer, was unreachable.
The Trump White House, reportedly very attentive to the optics of crowds, did not immediately get back to the Post about Kelly's comportment in the UN audience.
But the President's press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was asked on Thursday about the many grim poses of Kelly.
"He seems to be with the President all the time," said Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade. "He seems to either be holding his head, or showing exasperation, or staring at the ground - and people look at those photos, saying he's unhappy with the President's remarks."
Sanders countered that the two men had "a great chemistry". "I would certainly not read anything into that picture," she said. "Probably, just like the rest of us, we're tired trying to keep up with this President who's working hard every day to help America."
The press secretary made a good point: Read meaning into a lone image at your own risk. Washington Post
