La Celostina

About

La Celostina is a character from the Mexican show La Hora Pico. In each sketch, Celestina dates a different man (guest appearance), but she always fails to read her partner's actions and becomes "Celostina," an angrier and more aggressive version of the character. Online, Celostina is a frequent source of reaction images, GIFs and videos spread on social media, which have spread online since as early as the late 2000s.

Origin

On September 7th, 2000, the Mexican television sketch comedy show La Hora Pico ^[1] premiered on the channel Televisa. One of the sketches in the show, titled "La Celostina," features Celestina (played by Lorena de la Garza), a woman with innocent and kind behavior, who usually finds herself involved in a date with the guest star of the show (shown below, left). At one point, some misunderstanding occurs (usually the guest star talking kindly to another woman), which provokes Celestina's anger, transforming her into Celostina (played by Adrián Uribe), a woman with masculine traits, impulsive and aggressive features (shown below, right).

One of the earliest online references to the character was posted on YouTube^[2] by user @aztecablvdguanajuato on December 31st, 2007. The video (shown below) features a sketch of the character alongside the guest appearance of Mexican actor Juan Soler preparing to do a skydiving jump. The post received over 1.7 million views and 9,300 likes in 16 years.

Spread

Online, the character was popularized in reaction images, GIF and video formats on social media. For instance, on November 7th, 2013, Twitter^[3] user @AdrianUribe posted a still image of Celostina paired with the overlay text in Spanish "You liked the photo of that bitch right? Eliminate her, idiot, eliminate her or I'll kill myself, I'll kill myself!" The post (shown below, left) garnered over 50 likes and 32 retweets in a decade. On May 18th, 2014, Twitter^[4] user @Sr_Mostachon posted a still image of Celostina paired with the overlay text in Spanish "You make me furious!" The post (shown below, right) garnered roughly 10 likes and eight retweets in nine years.

Related Memes

Celostina's Transformation

Celostina's transformation is a common image macro meme on social media used to express feelings of jealousy in a relationship. For example, on May 4th, 2021, YouTube^[5] user @alejandramaradiaga2899 posted a clip showing the character's transformation (shown below), which garnered over 46,000 views and 192 likes in two years.

On February 24th, 2021, Facebook^[6] user @ajheredia uploaded a sketch showing the character's transformation (shown below), which received over 27,000 likes and 14,000 shares in two years.

Barbie or Celestina

The release of the 2023 Barbie and Celestina's similarities with the American Doll-inspired ironic memes on TikTok. For example, on July 20th, 2023, TikToker^[7] @webosfritos.es1 compared both characters using Celestina's sketch clip (shown below, left), which garnered roughly 790 plays and 124 likes in a day. On the same day, an image of two fans going to the Barbie movie premiere became the subject of ironic memes (shown below, right). The image was posted on TikTok^[8] by user @beto70293, garnering over 1,000 plays and 77 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References