About

I Don't Really Care If Something Good Happened to You. It Should Have Happened to Me Instead is a reaction image based on a viral TikTok of a man staring at the camera captioned with the text. Online, the image has been used as a reaction to express feelings of envy and as the source material for recaption memes.

Origin

Prior to January 19th, 2022, TikToker^[1] @localtotoro posted a video of himself looking at the camera captioned, "I don't really care if something good happened to you, it should have happened to me instead" (video not available due to account privacy settings). On January 19th, an unknown Tumblr^[2] user posted a still image from the video, with the post going viral on the website prior to being removed due to a violation of community guidelines.

On March 3rd, 2022, the Twitter^[3] gimmick account @reactjpg then archived the reaction image.

Spread

Following a period of use of the image as a reaction on Twitter, the screenshot spawned a recaption meme format. For example, on May 20th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user @jewelsology posted a Shipping meme that received over 3,400 retweets and 23,200 likes in nine months (shown below, left). On June 10th, Tumblr^[5] user lesbianrey posted a meme that garnered over 12,300 likes and reblogs in eight months (shown below, right).

The image maintained its popularity online, both as a reaction and a recaption meme format, throughout 2022 and early 2023.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References