Why is the 'Fletcher meme' all over TikTok?
Have you seen the boy in the purple shirt all over your timeline or FYP? Does his face ring a bell, but you just can't place him and the generic fictional school background in which he exists? We've got you covered.
The internet's current favorite reaction meme is none other than Jake Short, who starred as Fletcher Quimby in Disney Channel's A.N.T. Farm. In the meme-ified series of images, Short's facial expressions encapsulate the feeling of being caught red-handed, making it the perfect meme to share a hot take or admit something embarrassing — two of the chronically online's favorite hobbies.
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The stills of Short are screenshots from two on-set interviews he gave with Fanlala and Popstar! back in 2011. For a quick refresher, A.N.T. Farm told the story of a crew of talented pre-teens who attend the Advanced Natural Talent (A.N.T.) program at their local high school. It centered around music prodigy Chyna Parks played by China Anne McClain. Short's character was an artistic genius whose brilliance began and ended with art. The television show aired from 2011 to 2014.
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According to Know Your Meme, the images of Short took off on Twitter during the first week of October and have since migrated over to TikTok. Previously, reaction memes like this one would have been confined to Twitter and Instagram, but because of TikTok's new photo mode that allows users to post up to 35 photos in a slideshow, it's all over the video-first platform as well.
On TikTok, the meme is being used to express the stages of grief one goes through before admitting something embarrassing. For example, @towerofsoup posted a video that reads, "what types of books do you read" in reference to reading smut. Another, posted by @jessica.h427, reads, "did you just hit a curb??" The meme is often accompanied by "My Humps" from the Black Eyed Peas, which has soundtracked over 60,000 TikToks to date. The "Fletcher meme" tag has been viewed nearly 30 million times.
When every popular social media platform is trying to be everything, memes take on different meanings depending on where you encounter them. Meme language is ever-evolving, and sometimes all you need is one seemingly random bit of Gen Z nostalgia to unite the internet.
Elena is a tech reporter and the resident Gen Z expert at Mashable. She covers TikTok and digital trends. She recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in American History. Email her at [email protected] or follow her @ecaviar_.
