About

Mátalo refers to a 2019 clip from the Spanish TV show Sálvame in which the host is dressed as Joker and screams to the camera "and the voices in my mind are saying, mátalo!" "Mátalo" translates to "kill" in English. The viral audio was uploaded on TikTok and generated various sorts of ironic video content such as lip-dub skits and reacting to pets.

Origin

On November 2nd, 2019, the Spanish television program Sálvame^[1] aired a special Halloween show and dressed its cast as famous villains and scary characters. The presenter Chelo García Cortés wore a costume and makeup inspired by Joaquin Phoenix's Joker.

During the presentation of the costumes, Chelo García stared at the camera and said "I am The Joker and the voices in my mind are saying, mátalo!" (shown below).

Spread

On September 14th, 2020, TikToker @itsabelm^[2] posted the clip of Chelo Garcia presenting her Joker costume. The video got 652,000 views in two years and 40,000 likes. Although is not clear who was the first user to use the audio in a humorous way, one of the oldest known skits dates back to November 18th, 2020. That day, TikToker @jelennn._ she posted an ironic video expressing her feelings when one of her friend's fiancé made her friend cry. The video received 84,000 views and 21,000 likes in two years (shown below).

The audio inspired over 110,000 videos on TikTok in two years, primarily due to the way it was used by pet owners. On June 29th, 2021, TikToker @liz_enriquez81 posted a video of her dog destroying a faucet in her garage with the audio. The post got 37 million views and 2.6 million likes in one year (shown below).

In animal videos, the audio was used either to describe how the owner feels when their pet misbehaves or to personify how a pet feels at a specific moment. On February 13th, 2022, TikToker @bertuja used the sound with video of her old cat angrily staring at the new cat she adopted. The video received 2.3 million views and 465,000 likes in five months.

Promo for El Internado: Las Cumbres

On April 5th, 2022, 'Prime Video España' tweeted^[3] a promo for the show El Internado: Las Cumbres with famous celebrities and personalities from Spain. Chelo Garcia appeared in a scene where a teacher punishes her bad behavior and she repeated her meme while looking straight at the camera (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References