Driverposting / "I Drive" (TikTok Trend)

About

Driverposting, also known as "I Drive", refers a meme format which combines footage of car accidents and reckless driving with a still image of the main protagonist of the 2011 film Drive, portrayed by literally me actor Ryan Gosling, as if The Driver is the one behind the wheel. The videos are usually combined with the song Nightcall from the Drive soundtrack. The format first achieved popularity on TikTok in early October 2023.

Origin

On August 13th, 2023, TikTok^[1] user @arabsckus2 posted gameplay footage of a person playing Counter-Strike with a steering wheel combined with a still image of the nameless protagonist of the 2011 film Drive and set to the song Nightcall from the same film. The video (shown below) received over 610,000 views and 98,000 likes in three years (shown below).

On October 5th, 2023, TikTok^[2] user @nexisstw combined the image with a clip of a car going airborne in the survival horror video game Project Zomboid, with the upload gaining over 855,000 views and 95,200 likes in two months (shown below, left). On the same day, TikTok^[3] user @maksonlllll posted a meme that received over 143,000 views and 20,900 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

Spread

The uploads were followed by more videos based on the format in the following days, with users superimposing images of The Driver onto footage of car incidents. On October 13th, TikTok^[4] user @maksonlllll posted a video that received over 3.2 million views and 433,000 likes in two months (shown below, left). On October 15th, TikTok^[5] user @sentx_xis posted a video that received over 4.3 million views and 527,000 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

The format maintained popularity on TikTok through the second half of October and through November 2023, and achieved further spread through reposts on Instagram, X and iFunny.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References