About

"Heartwarming" Headline Parodies refers to a series of posts parodying news headlines which present various grim situations as "heartwarming." The trend gained popularity on Twitter following a news article about a Texas teen who gave up her college savings to pay her family's rent in order to prevent eviction.

Origin

On February 9th, 2021, ABC7 News^[1] posted a news article about Texas student Alondra Carmona who gave up her college savings in order to help pay for her mother's rent and prevent her from being evicted. On the same day, ABC7 News tweeted^[2] the article, with the post gaining over 3,900 retweets and 14,900 likes in two days (tweet shown below).

Within two hours since ABC7 News tweeted the article, Twitter^[3] user @ALBDamn quote retweeted the post, writing, "Not heartwarming. This is a horror story." The tweet received over 25,800 retweets and 100,300 likes in two days (shown below).

Spread

On the same day, more Twitter^[4][5] users wrote that the story was grim and tragic rather than heartwarming (examples shown below).

Later on February 9th, Twitter^[6] user @JordanUhl tweeted a made-up headline which presented a grim story as heartwarming (shown below). The tweet received over 14,100 retweets and 167,700 likes in two days.

Starting on February 9th, more Twitter users made similar posts, often referencing popular TV series and films such as Breaking Bad. For example, on that day, Twitter^[7] user @ChrisRGun posted a tweet that received over 13,900 retweets and 83,500 likes in two days.

Related Memes

Orphan-Crushing Machine

Orphan-Crushing Machine is a metaphor for "heartwarming" news stories about someone remedying the immediate effects of a sociopolitical issue which ignore the root cause of said issue. The metaphor satirizes these stories through comparing them to a story of a person raising money to keep 200 orphans from being crushed where nobody questions why an orphan-crushing machine exists in the first place.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References