About

Emo Kid Clutching Gun or Emo Kid Holding Back is a scene from the 2011 Polish film Suicide Room in which the protagonist, an emo kid named Dominik Santorski, walks away from school and grimaces while clutching a gun in his hoodie pocket, almost taking it out but managing to hold himself back. In July 2024, the scene became the subject of memes on TikTok in which the clip is used to portray someone holding back from taking extreme action against something that annoys them. The caption memes are often set to the song "hansen" by wokeups.

Origin

In the Polish film Suicide Room, released in 2011, a popular high school student named Dominik becomes reclusive and adopts an "emo" lifestyle from a chatroom known as the "Suicide Room" after rumors that he's gay start circulating around the school. In one scene, he brings his dad's gun to school with the intent of shooting a bully, Aleksander. He holds himself back and is seen walking away from the situation. He grimaces and starts to pull the gun out as he walks off (shown below).

On July 22nd, 2024, TikToker^[1] @chainswhaa posted a meme consisting of the scene underneath a selection of popular TikTok copypasta spam comments, meant to convey that the comments are annoying and he has to hold himself back from taking drastic action against those who use them, garnering over 800,000 views in two days (shown below). This is the earliest known meme to use the film's scene, although may not be the first. The video is set to the song "hansen" by wokeups.

Spread

The meme became increasingly popularized that month, often under the same original sound for "hansen." On July 23rd, 2024, TikToker^[2] @civillxx posted a version of the meme about school, garnering over 960,000 views in a day (shown below, left). On the same day, TikToker^[3] @exp3rt.1 posted a version of the meme that garnered over 820,000 views in the same span of time (shown below, right).

That night, TikToker^[4] @ilovevaehhh posted a version of the meme with a caption expressing annoyance over hearing someone drive by playing the Kendrick Lamar song "Not Like Us" at full volume, garnering over 500,000 views in under 24 hours (shown below).

Some TikTokers began posting videos that recreated the source scene. For example, on July 23rd, 2024, TikToker^[5] @dreadreaperr posted a video referencing the scene directly and how it keeps popping up on his FYP, garnering over 422,000 views in under 24 hours (shown below, left). Also that day, TikToker^[6] @buqcs posted a similar video, garnering over 150,000 views in roughly the same span of time (shown below, right).

The meme spread to X that month. On July 27th, X^[7] user @binej_yeah posted the video, writing, "how it be when you tryna let out a sentence in vc but you keep getting talked over so you can't even go beyond the first word," garnering over 53,000 likes in two days. On July 29th, X^[8] user @luffybackshots posted a version reading, "me coming out of the bathroom after a failed shit attempt," garnering over 41,000 likes in under a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References