About

HYBE's Biggest Fear is a catchphrase used in memes and jokes about the K-Pop company HYBE and the groups it manages. The meme trend involves people posting images of K-Pop groups (like Blackpink) with the caption, "HYBE's greatest fear," with later iterations of the meme involving humorous examples of fictional, non-K-Pop groups. The trend began in April 2024 when Andor CEO Min Hee Jin revealed messages between her and HYBE founder Bang Si Hyuk mentioning SM Entertainment's K-Pop group aespa. The message from Hyuk reads, "You can crush aespa, right?"

Origin

On April 25th, 2024, messages between K-Pop agency Andor's CEO Min Hee Jin and HYBE founder Bang Si Hyuk made the news, showing a message from Hyuk that reads, "You can crush aespa, right?"^[1]

Also on April 25th, Twitter / X^[2] user @jeannesbbg made a post featuring several non-HYBE K-Pop bands, including aespa, with the caption, "HYBE's biggest fear." The post gathered over 8,000 likes in six months.

Spread

On April 27th, 2024 Instagram^[3] user @jen_lyyn posted a fan edit featuring the aforementioned tweet, as well as photos of the band BLACKPINK, gathering over 80,000 likes in six months.

On October 23rd, 2024, X^[4] user @lalisasproperty tweeted a photo of former BLACKPINK members Jennie and Rosé, as well as the girl band aespa topping music charts. The post was captioned, "hybe's biggest fear," gathering over 100,000 likes in five days.

By late October 2024, several humorous posts pitching random pop culture figures as "HYBE's biggest fear" began making the rounds online. X^[5] user @misternosferatu's October 27th, 2024, post captioned, "now y'all just posting any group and caption it "hybe's biggest fear" 😭," gathered over 6,000 likes and numerous quote tweets in late October.

On October 28th, X^[6] user @aejikunn reposted an image of a fictional boyband from the animated movie Turning Red, gathering over 79,000 likes in a day.

Also on October 28th, 2024, X^[7] user @aesdrama posted a clip from an aespa virtual concert, gathering over 20,000 likes in a day.

hybe's biggest fearpic.twitter.com/L4XqfQ4OJi https://t.co/CUvJoNiY70

— 🏁 (@aesdrama) October 28, 2024

Various Examples

hybe's biggest fear pic.twitter.com/HdM4FSH8Ai https://t.co/MopJRbOCR4

— serene (@seireneity_) October 29, 2024

hybe's biggest fear pic.twitter.com/cslzvpZ5TB https://t.co/74dp0a5YAE

— mae 🩰 (@jaechivt) October 28, 2024

Search Interest

External References