About

Gayle King's Exhausted Reaction refers to an image of American journalist and television personality Gayle King looking apprehensive and resigned as she walks towards the launch capsule for the all-woman Blue Origin space mission that took place in April 2025. In mid-April 2025, images and videos of King's walk gained popularity as a caption format, being used to express exhaustion and unwillingness to do something.

Origin

On April 14th, 2025, the Blue Origin NS-31 sub-orbital spaceflight, commonly known as the all-woman celebrity launch, took place. Before the launch, the crew members, including singer Katy Perry and television personality Gayle King, rang a mission bell before walking on board the New Shepard capsule. During her walk, Gayle King looked apprehensive and concerned. On that day, the official X account for Blue Origin uploaded a video of the walk to X,^[1] where it gained over 2,500 reposts and 10,000 likes in four days (shown below).

REPLAY: A New Shepard tradition pic.twitter.com/dSexRmoZl7

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2025

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In the following hour, multiple users on X quoted the video and replied to it with comments about Gayle King's concerned expression. For example, on April 14th, 2025, X^[2] suer @jasonsproblems shared the video with the comment, "Y'all pls look at Gayle 😭". The post (shown below) received over 11,000 reposts and 187,000 likes in four days.

Y'all pls look at Gayle 😭 pic.twitter.com/Z1qhXHtZU6

— ໊ (@jasonsproblems) April 14, 2025

Starting on the same day, users on X, Threads and other social media used the clip of Gayle ringing the bell and walking away as a meme format, pairing it with captions about being tired of or unwilling to do something. For example, on April 14th, 2025, X^[3] user @imtremainhaynes captioned the video, "Me clocking into work this morning …", with the post (shown below) gaining over 7,800 reposts and 60,000 likes in four days.

Me clocking into work this morning … pic.twitter.com/KkirgMv9gv

— tremain (@imtremainhaynes) April 14, 2025

Later on April 14th, X^[4] user @2HNDSUM posted a still image of King from the video, writing, "me clocking into the job I prayed for". The post (shown below) received over 20,000 reposts and 174,000 likes in four days.

Various Examples

Trader Joe’s employees after flirting with you pic.twitter.com/mOuaZIozXX

— marc (@msnetik) April 14, 2025

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External References