About

The Charlie Kirk Eyes Closed Before Death Reaction Image refers to an image of deceased right-wing organizer Charlie Kirk moments before he was fatally shot at Utah Valley University in September 2025, in which he has his eyes closed and is seen wearing a white T-shirt reading, "Freedom." The image was a screencap from the graphic viral video of his death that spread on Twitter / X and Reddit on the day of the shooting. In the following weeks, the image of Charlie Kirk with his eyes closed before being shot was used as a reaction image and caption meme on X. It was commonly paired with captions about failing or doing something regrettable, causing an unhappy or guilty feeling in the meme's subject. A notable example used the caption, "Just spent $20 to get Wendy's delivered," and it sparked viral discourse about the image's controversial use in memes. Many expressed a belief that the use of the image was absurd and disrespectful, given its context.

Origin

On September 10th, 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University.^[1] That day, a graphic video of Kirk's death, in which he is shown being shot in the neck while speaking at the college, spread on social media websites like X.^[2]

Also on September 10th, X^[3] user @Gabriel_Hatay tweeted a screenshot from the video, showing Kirk with his eyes closed moments before the shot, paired with the Cooked Dog meme. Over one month, the tweet received over 291,000 likes and is currently the first known memetic use of the image.

Spread

Later on September 10th, 2025, X^[4] user @bitoisgod posted a square-cropped version of the same screenshot, showing Charlie Kirk with his eyes closed, captioned, "Was gonna try the nonchalant gimmick then remembered how old I was." The tweet received over 4,300 likes in a month.

On September 11th, X^[5] user @frenchy27ii tweeted the image with the caption, "Coworker was showing me tweets from Charlie Kirk discourse last night and my tweet came up and he said 'some people are sick man.'" Over one month, it received roughly 358,000 likes.

The image was used by several creators in memes in the following weeks.

For instance, on October 3rd, 2025, X^[6] user @PTAShill tweeted the image, captioning it, "Just spent $20 to get Wendy’s delivered," gaining over 32,000 likes in three days.

Later on October 3rd, X^[7] user @alpharomusic quote-tweeted the aforementioned post, writing, "What's crazy about this pic is this is literally the last second of his life, like actually the instant before it all went dark, and ppl are using it when they get $20 of Wendy's delivered." The post received over 245,000 likes in three days.

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