About

Ken on Barbie's Shoulder, also known as Ken Holding Barbie's Hand, refers to a still image from the 2023 Barbie movie in which Ken (played by Ryan Gosling) is putting his head on the shoulder of Barbie (played by Margot Robbie) and holding her hand in a seemingly emasculating way. The meme trended on Twitter and other social media platforms, paired with captions that portrayed an emotion, activity or personality trait that involved being vulnerable.

Origin

On July 6th, 2023, Twitter^[1] user @margotposts tweeted a image of Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie dressed as Ken and Barbie in the 2023 Barbie movie, showing Ken resting his head on Barbie's shoulder and holding her hand (shown below, left). Over the course of four days, the tweet received roughly 20,300 likes. The image was quickly reposted by other Twitter^[2][3] users on July 6th, additionally earning memetic usage. For instance, the first-known tweet to gain over 1,000 likes and use the image for a meme purpose was posted by Twitter^[4] user @SolaceCinema, referencing the IDK How Many X I Got Left in Me snowclone and gaining roughly 10,200 likes in four days (shown below, right).

Spread

In the days that followed the viral tweet,^[1] many viral quote retweets and other memetic usages of the Ken on Barbie's Shoulder image surfaced on social media. For instance, on July 7th, 2023, Twitter^[5] user @zachsilberberg posted a QRT that read, "rushing to type me and who so fast that i trip and fall and break my neck and die instantly," gaining roughly 103,700 likes in three days (shown below, left). On July 8th, 2023, Twitter^[6] user @itszaeok used the image, gaining roughly 53,000 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Viral usage persisted on Twitter^[7] going into July 2023.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References