Over the last year a fascinating new trend has emerged in which moviegoers will relate so strongly to a character that they will claim that the character is “literally me.”
Table of Contents
- 🧍♂️ “Literally Me” is a TikTok trend where users humorously claim to relate to or be like specific fictional characters, often played by Ryan Gosling, using their traits or personalities to create funny and relatable content.
- 🎥 The trend originated in early 2022, gained popularity through characters like Driver from “Drive” and Officer K from “Blade Runner 2049,” and further exploded with the addition of Ken from “Barbie” in 2023.
- 🎶Its uniqueness lies in connecting with flawed characters and the use of appropriate soundtracks, but some challenges involve associations with the “Sigma Male” trend, which at times promotes exaggerated masculinity and negative behavior towards women.
🔎 In the Trends
What is “Literally Me” all about?
“Literally Me” is a rather strange trend, but one that has certainly shown itself to be able to stand the test of time. In short, it is based around users pointing out how strongly they relate to a specific fictional character by jokingly saying that they are just like, if not actually are, that person. The most common characters that this trend tends to focus on are those played by Ryan Gosling, though many others are popular.
Impact on Pop Culture
The trend is immensely popular, and will likely remain that way for some time. For the most part the trend has had a positive reception, as the basis of the meme is lighthearted and funny, eliciting similar feelings as being inspired by a fictional hero to be a better person. With the exception of its connection to some more controversial trends, “Literally Me” is widely considered to be funny, relatable, and generally just quality content.
Origins and Popularity
The “Literally Me” trend has a complex and storied history. While the source is difficult to find, it seems that it likely originated in early 2022, shortly after the release of The Batman. Around this time a similar trend was present, which joked about moviegoers “downloading” their favorite character’s personality after watching the movie, which is to say they would feel inclined to recreate that character’s attitude or charisma out of their fascination with them. This would typically be applied toward characters from The Batman, as well as Top Gun: Maverick later that same year.
Several months later, the primary recipient of the “Literally Me” assertion, characters played by Ryan Gosling, would begin to appear. Briefly coexisting with the waning popularity of The Batman, Driver from Drive (2011) and soon after Officer K from Blade Runner 2049 (2017) would firmly embed themselves in the trend as both cool and relatable characters, starting sometime towards the latter end of 2022. Characters from other media such as Taxi Driver (1976) or certain anime would also be included in the trend, but those played by Gosling would still remain the most popular choice.
Sometime in spring of 2023, as marketing material for Barbie (2023) began to pick up, Gosling’s presence in the film as the iconic figure of Ken would become more widely known (and spawn his own trends), and he would be quickly added to the roster of “Literally Me” characters. Upon the film’s release, Ken’s musical number and the story of Ken exploring his masculinity would only continue to skyrocket both his part of the trend and “Literally Me” as a whole further into the stratosphere.
Unique Elements
The trend has an especially unique trait going for it in that the characters the trend fixates on are not often the traditional protagonists. Especially in the cases of Drive, Blade Runner and The Batman, the protagonists are indeed heroic but also somewhat socially inept and above all else immensely lonely. This allows the target audience of the trend (usually teenage boys and young men) to strongly relate to these flawed characters, much more so than the more charismatic casts of other media. This connection to the growing movement of men allowing themselves to be open about their mental health has provided “Literally Me” a distinct edge over the competition.
One important facet of the trend that cannot be left out is its soundtrack. The themes of the various Ryan Gosling movies the memes take their cues from are often added to compliment each post, with the retro synth of Kavinsky’s “Nightcall” from Drive and “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie providing excellent additions to their respective content.
Challenges and considerations
While the “Literally Me” trend is mostly harmless, it has some more negative trends associated with it. There is notable overlap between the trend and the “Sigma Male” trend, which appeared around the same time, and would frequently alternate between ironic and unironically using the term “sigma” to refer to usually fictional men expressing an exaggerated form of masculinity. These expressions could range from being honorable or brave to being demeaning or even violent towards women. While “Literally Me” is still a distinct trend, many of the same characters and themes would see heavy use between both.
