About

The King Von Anti-Piracy Screen, also known as the King Von Stare, King Von Staring, King Von Lightning Eyes, King Von Thunder Eyes or Withered King Von, refers to a black and white image of late Chicago rapper King Von staring with evil intent at the viewer. The photo is originally from his posthumous music video "Demon" which was released in 2021. The King Von Stare meme trended on TikTok and Twitter / X in 2024, often paired with funny captions in Slow Fade-In videos that joked about being seriously mad about a minor transgression. It was also commonly used as a reaction image similar to the Thousand-Yard Stare. A viral video edit of the image in which King Von is given glowing thunder and lightning eyes gained its own memetic use, commonly set to a sound from the Slender Man game. The Lightning Eyes format was similar to the Patrick Bateman and Joker Lightning Eyes meme. In December 2024, the image became an Anti-Piracy Screen meme. Overall, the meme riffs on King Von's notorious reputation as a prolific killer in the Chicago drill scene that fostered other artists like Cheif Keef and Lil Durk.

Origin

On August 9th, 2021, a music video for King Von's "Demon" was uploaded to his YouTube^[1] channel, receiving over 34.5 million views in three years. The video was released a year after King Von was killed.^[2] At its 1:58-minute mark (shown below), a close-up of King Von staring at the viewer with demonic eyes is shown. A black-and-white version of the frame was used as the video's thumbnail.

Spread

In September 2024, memes using the King Von Stare surfaced en masse. Currently, the earliest known one was posted by TikToker^[3] @beruoa on September 19th, joking about a 2 Man, receiving over 3,400 likes two months (shown below).

On September 22nd, TikToker^[4] @teshante.v2 posted a meme that added lightning and glowing eyes effects to the King Von Stare image, also adding a top caption reading, "How that 'nice' supervisor be looking at you after your shift is over," receiving over 50,500 plays and 1,500 likes in two months (shown below). The video is currently the first known time that the King Von Lightning Eyes edit was used.

On September 24th, 2024, Twitter / X^[5] user @unseenopium tweeted a meme from TikTok, reading, "How mfs looked at you if you fw @MEH in 2020," gaining over 19,000 likes in two months (shown below).

In the following months, the King Von Stare meme spread in the abovementioned formats. For instance, on November 5th, TikToker^[6] @milo.tws shared a Lightning Eyes iteration, reading, "How a MF you never talked to before look at you when you don't give them the answers to the 10-question math sheet," gaining over 472,100 plays and 86,500 likes in nine days (shown below).

King Von Anti-Piracy Screen

On December 13th, 2024, TikToker^[7] @vision.vfx0 posted a video that animated the King Von Stare image to show the rapper blinking. The video received over 1.6 million plays and 261,000 likes in five days (shown below). Top comments on the video called it a "King Von anti-piracy screen" and "Withered King Von."

Meme creators riffed on the idea of a King Von Anti-Piracy Screen in the following days, inspired by the abovementioned video. For instance, on December 14th, TikToker^[8] @keaton.fr posted a video that added an anti-piracy warning to the video, tagging @vision.vfx0 in the description. Over four days, the TikTok amassed over 887,900 plays and 130,100 likes (shown below).

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References