M. Night Shyamalan has garnered a reputation for making films with quite absurd premises. From people being kidnapped by a multiple personalities captor to victims of the beach that makes you old, Shyamalan's tendency to veer into the strange and absurd is a well-known attribute.

His latest venture, Trap, deals with a similarly bizarre premise; a serial killer only known to the public as "The Butcher" realizes that the concert he is taking his unwitting daughter to is actually an elaborate trap set by law enforcement. Here's how a scene where an unknowing merch guy became The Butcher's accidental informant, and how "this whole concert is a trap" became a viral exploitable meme.

Where Did The Line 'This Whole Concert Is A Trap' Come From?

A trailer for the M. Night Shyamalan film Trap was released back in April 2024, setting up the basic premise of the film. At one point in the trailer, a merch salesman says to the protagonist that the concert he and his daughter are attending is an elaborate trap set up to catch the serial killer known as the Butcher.

You know the Butcher? That freaking nutjob that goes around just chopping people up? Well, the feds or whatever heard that he's gonna be here today, so they set up a trap for him. This whole concert -- it's a trap.

How Did 'This Whole Concert Is A Trap' Become A Meme?

Internet users began posting meme edits of Jamie the merch table guy's line soon after the trailer was released, as seen in a post by X user @sternbergh, who used the template to joke about Taylor Swift's Tortured Poets Department.

More X users caught on to the meme in subsequent weeks, including @roryofffilm, who joked about Dracula being trapped on a boat while @ScottMendelson joked about Harry Potter.

By August 2024, more jokes about "this whole concert is a trap" were making the rounds and gaining viral traction, including a post from @SiddhantAdlakha about the Jeremy Renner App and a post from @DGKMusic about Matt Walsh's DNC disguise.

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For the full history of "this whole concert is a trap," be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.