I Am A Surgeon, Dr. Han!

About

I Am A Surgeon, Dr. Han! also known as I Am A Surgeon! refers to a scene from the ABC drama TV series The Good Doctor in which the character Dr. Shaun Murphy (played by Freddie Highmore), an autistic surgeon and the show's protagonist, is yelling at Dr. Jackson Han (played by Daniel Dae Kim), loudly stating, "I am a surgeon!" over and over again while crying due to Dr. Han barring him from the surgeon team. The original episode was season 2, episode 17 titled "Breakdown." The scene originally became a meme on Chinese social media in 2021 where users called Dr. Murphy "紅眼肖恩" (in English "Red-eyed Shaun"). Then, the dramatic nature of the scene became a meme on TikTok in early 2023 when the emotional performance was satirized by TikTokers who made anti-memes and ironic fan edits with absurd CapCut filters and effects, similar to bad The Walking Dead edits. Also, many anti-memes substituted "surgeon" with "sturgeon," as in, the species of fish. On Twitter, many started to caption a photo of The Good Doctor Crying, also known as Dr. Murphy Crying, with the phrasal template, "I Am A X, Dr. Han!" The scene also inspired an ironic fandom for Dr. Han, as many memers enjoyed his stoic reaction to Dr. Murphy's outburst, leading to the creation of memes depicting Dr. Han as a Chad.

Origin

On March 4th, 2019, season 2, episode 17 of The Good Doctor titled "Breakdown" aired on ABC.^[1] In one scene of the episode, the main character Dr. Shaun Murphy confronts Dr. Jackson Han in his office about being barred from a surgical procedure involving a tumor.^[1] Dr. Murphy continuously cries and yells at Dr. Han, saying, "I am a surgeon! I am a surgeon! I am a surgeon, Dr. Han!"

In China

The scene first became a meme on the Chinese internet in early 2021, where users called Dr. Shaun Murphy "紅眼肖恩" which translates in English to "Red-eyed Shaun." As an example, on May 18th, 2021, YouTuber^[26] 羊貓貓 uploaded a video called, "肖恩：敢開除我試試看（紅眼," which featured the scene and gave Dr. Murphy glowing, red eyes, gaining roughly 34,900 views in two years (shown below).

On TikTok

Later in 2021, the scene was shared by users on TikTok. The earliest discovered was a video shared by TikToker^[2] @x.hejo.x on September 18th, 2021, showing a recording of their laptop screen, gaining roughly 41,000 plays and 2,800 likes in two years. On October 6th, 2021, TikToker^[3] @ntimratfh84092 shared a screen recording of the scene, gaining roughly 2,100 likes in two years (shown below, left). Going into early 2023, the scene continued to be shared earnestly by fans of the show who believed the scene was powerful. For instance, on April 20th, 2023, TikToker^[4] @alilson_m shared the scene, gaining roughly 1.1 million likes in 18 days (shown below, right).

Due to the virality of TikToker^[4] @alilson_m's video, the "I am a surgeon!" scene was discovered by TikTokers who were critical of the scene, likening the performance to bad acting and making fun of it in tow. The first known TikToker to do so was TikToker^[5] @hot_elliot on April 20th, 2023, who posted a screen recording of their "For You" page that serendipitously played a Michael Rosen video directly after in which he's saying, "No need to shout. No need to yell." @hot_elliot received roughly 8,600 plays and 800 likes in 18 days (shown below).

Spread

On April 22nd, 2023, TikToker^[6] @hnjiaajuz14 earnestly posted the scene, also going viral, gaining roughly 18.7 million plays and 1.9 million likes in 16 days (shown below, left). The virality of TikToker^[4] @alilson_m's video and TikToker^[6] @hnjiaajuz14's video continued to cause memetic reactions on the platform, being more absurd and more viral going into May 2023. For instance, one of the earliest, viral memes to make fun of the scene was posted by TikToker^[7] @excessivetvuser on April 26th, 2023, who captioned it, "surgeons be like," gaining roughly 2.5 million plays and 484,900 likes in 12 days (shown below, right).

On May 4th, 2023, TikToker^[15] @gujvhoaj6rl posted a photo slideshow with stock images of the sturgeon fish species, essentially likening Dr. Murphy to saying "I am a sturgeon!" The slideshow gained roughly 446,100 plays and 76,100 likes in four days and inspired other TikTokers^[16] to make the same joke.

Absurd fan edits then followed in which video creators used CapCut effects and filters, additionally calling Dr. Murphy "Blud" in an ironic hood way. For instance, on May 6th, 2023, TikToker^[8] @king_floppaman posted a video of this nature, gaining roughly 532,800 plays and 82,200 likes in two days (shown below).

Also on May 6th, 2023, Twitter^[9] user @guymrdth tweeted TikToker^[6] @hnjiaajuz14's video with no caption, gaining roughly 9,000 likes in two days.

The Twitter repost caused more memes that made fun of the scene. For instance, on May 6th, 2023, Twitter^[10] user @TylorStankley captioned a screencap of Dr. Han using the When She Sucking Your Nuts And You A Gangsta caption, gaining roughly 6,500 likes in two days (shown below, left). On May 7th, 2023, Twitter^[11] user @theendlessn1ght tweeted a screencap of Dr. Murphy crying, gaining roughly 14,600 likes in one day (shown below, right).

More Twitter^[12][13] users namedropped the scene in May 2023. The memes also spread to viral posts on Instagram, ^[14] among other platforms.

On May 9th, Cheezburger^[24] posted a roundup of 28 memes about The Good Doctor and Dr. Han. eBaum's World^[25] also posted a compilation.

The Good Doctor Crying

Inspired by Twitter^[11] user @theendlessn1ght's tweet that used the screencap of Dr. Murphy crying, others on Twitter started to caption the image macro, often using the phrasal template "I am a X, Dr. Han!" For instance, on May 8th, 2023, Twitter^[17] user @kunaiposting inserted the word "Gooner" into the template, gaining roughly 4,300 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Other Twitter users soon followed, such as Twitter^[18] user @Jahrihanna who repeated, "I AM FROM THE HOOD DR HAN," in a tweet that gained roughly 1,400 likes in three hours.

Dr. Han

As memes about Highmore's performance as Dr. Murphy spread, viewers found themselves enjoying Daniel Dae Kim's performance as Dr. Han, particularly his stoic reaction to Dr. Murphy's outburst. On May 7th, 2023, Twitter user @hacer_kun posted a Virgin vs. Chad video depicting Dr. Han as the Chad, gaining over 1,500 retweets and 17,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Over the following days, social media users began inserting Dr. Han into meme templates that depicted him as rational and handsome, analogous to the Yes Chad meme. For example, on May 8th, Twitter user @fellawhomstdve^[19] edited stills of the scene to fit the Will You Perish Like a Dog? meme, gaining over 2,800 retweets and 22,000 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). The same day, user @MaxDan342^[20] inserted Dr. Han into a My Reaction To That Information meme, gaining over 1,300 likes in the same time frame.

The spread of Dr. Han memes led to a newfound appreciation for the work of actor Daniel Dae Kim, whose name trended on Twitter on May 9th.^[21] On May 8th, Twitter user @TheTechJacket^[22] remarked on Kim's quick rise to becoming a "hero of the people," gaining over 1,400 retweets and 19,000 likes in less than a day (shown below, left). On May 9th, Gene Park^[23] posted screenshots documenting how at the time the scene aired, YouTube commenters were on the side of Shaun, but "in the past 24 hours," the comments were praising Dr. Han and Daniel Dae Kim, gaining over 140 retweets and 1,700 likes in three hours (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References