Jayrscottyy: Is Jordan Scott A Chad For Our Times?

Over the past few weeks, the saturated market of internet catchphrases has gained another new addition. The video it's from features an individual with an unsettling appearance: either unable to blink or refusing to, and it’s hard to decide which option would be scarier.

There’s some kind of filter involved accentuating the uncanny valley effect, making him look like an alien in a human disguise who's accidentally gotten all the colors and proportions slightly wrong. Wagging his finger for emphasis, he makes his now-iconic point. “I ain’t never seen two pretty best friends. One of them always gotta be ugly.”

The star of the video, referred to as "I Ain't Never Seen Two Pretty Best Friends," is 24-year-old Jordan Scott, AKA TikTok user jayrscottyy. He stood by his point when interviewed by Insider, but he acknowledged it came from an outsider’s perspective. “I don’t have a best friend, although I am the pretty one,” Scott said.

At a similar length to what the average Vine used to be, this nugget of wisdom immediately lent itself to the kind of quotability that came from the late platform that many content creators can only dream of. The only catch was that it became an unintentional punchline, as TikTok was soon flooded with remakes mocking his looks, body language and banal logic. Best friends used the video to jokingly compare themselves to one another, referencing the original’s caption, “I hate when the ugly one call the pretty 1 'twin.'”

Finally, as the meme became ingrained in TikTok lore, it entered the most abstract part of its life cycle. The phrase became removed from Scott’s voiceover entirely, being used in a series of increasingly elaborate bait-and-switches. Reaching its peak around election time, it proved a popular conceit for political jokes.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6891363676494957830

No one is sure why this video succeeded over his many others, which also tend to ruminate on relationships with women and have gained further notoriety following his original hit. However, in terms of Scott’s viral potential, some suggest the reaction he has gained comes from his association with a lifestyle dreamed up by an entirely different part of the internet. Put simply, he is a Chad.

One of the internet’s most iconic bogeymen, the Chad looms large in the minds of almost anyone with a bad meme habit. He is popular, good looking and has an enviable sexual prowess, which in one of his most popular iterations is contrasted with his opposite, the failure Virgin. He is every pickup artist’s ultimate goal and the enemy of every incel. While he is best known in cartoon form, he draws inspiration from genuine personality types.

Most importantly, he leads a blessedly offline life that affords him this success, but this also means that when found in reality, it isn’t as easy for him to acclimatize to the unwritten rules of non-cringe social media maintenance. YouTuber MrSoShadow came up with the Chad x Jordan Scott comparison. He noted the video was treated similarly to the Remy Boyz meme earlier this year, another TikTok by a user with a Chad-like appearance that was widely ridiculed on the platform.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6831794605327912198

A model and physical education major with a tendency to reference “females,” Scott ticks all the right boxes for Chad status. In the world of TikTok, though, that doesn’t give him the right criteria to inspire the jealousy engineered by Chads elsewhere. It’s a place that prides itself on its innovation, not showcasing hokey hometown Facebook statuses come to life. This is perhaps part of the reason the famous line has morphed into a bait-and-switch, as users acknowledge how absurdly it comes across in that environment.

Despite what this meme may suggest, TikTok has no agenda against conventionally attractive men. After all, this is the platform that launched the e-boy and continues to offer us the delights of the wannabe heartthrobs on straight TikTok — who operate with a lack of self-awareness that only lonely preteen girls can enjoy (although it gives a whole other audience plenty of meme material). However, these examples are a product of the medium they are in, rather than a meme antihero come to life.

cringe warning look she’s coming omg she’s beautiful white boy crying tearing up looking at the camera pov tuxedo suit tux dressed up for prom wedding heart beating fast thousand years by christina perri playing tiktok tik tok tears in love or sumn cringey pic.twitter.com/tNKDRWGtyw

— reaction videos (@findurmeme) May 13, 2020

While the mockery has been merciless, Scott hasn’t suffered from the publicity. On the contrary, he recently broke a million followers and has promised a merch line. For every person holding him up as an example of some of the worst TikTok can offer, there are almost as many who semi-ironically embrace his somewhat nonsensical guide to life. As it stands, it seems like the sunny parking lots of South Carolina are not out of the spotlight yet, and many of us are still being left wondering if we’re the ugly one in our close friendship group.

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