About

Don't Leave Me / Take Me With You is a viral TikTok video that inspired a series of parodies on the platform in June 2020. The videos typically feature one person making a wordplay joke then running away while the person filming yells "Don't leave me!" and "Take me with you!" Starting in late June 2020, the format spread to Twitter and other platforms, primarily in the form of Spongebob "Call That X" Puns.

Origin

On March 24th, 2020, Instagram user @Josh2Funny uploaded a video with the caption "Leave me alone" and the hashtags "#dontleaveme #dontleavemechallenge" (shown below). In the video, a man makes jokes using green leaves as a prop.

Spread

On June 3rd, 2020, TikToker @ballermac uploaded a video of himself making two separate wordplay jokes about Balenciaga and Armani and promptly running away as the camera person yells "Don't leave me!" and "Take me with you!" (shown below). The video gained over 289,300 likes in 15 days.

On June 9th, 2020, TikToker @mufadzi3 uploaded a video parodying @ballermac that received over 323,400 likes in nine days (shown below, left). On June 14th, TikToker @tamihawk posted another that garnered over 40,700 likes in four days. On June 17th, TikToker @hitman.zae posted their variation and added the hashtags #takemewithyou and #thinkaboutitchallenge (shown below, right). The video gained over 26,300 likes in a day. StayHipp^[1] published an article on the trend.

SpongeBob "Call That X" Puns

SpongeBob "Call That X" Puns refers to a subset of Don't Leave Me/Take Me With You memes based on puns accompanied by images of SpongeBob and Squidward running away. Largely following the Don't Leave Me meme structure, the format gained popularity on Twitter in late June 2020.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References