Mouse Moment / Mouse Eating Alone

About

Mouse Moment is a slang term characterizing a point in life reminiscent of a video of a claymation Mouse Eating Alone, often described as a sad or introspective moment when you are forced to eat alone. In September 2022, TikTokers began making videos where they shared their mouse moments after a clip of a mouse eating M&Ms alone (taken from an episode of Creature Comforts mixed with the song "New Home") went viral.

Origin

On January 18th, 2022, YouTuber^[1] Zach Hargadon posted a video of a sad, claymation mouse eating M&M candies alone on the floor set to "New Home" by Austin Farwell,^[2] garnering over 1.3 million views in eight months (shown below). The video of the mouse is from the first episode of the YouTube^[3] series Creature Comforts, uploaded on June 1st, 2018.

On March 18th, 2022, TikToker^[4] @kindadead.s.s (formerly painhub.s.s) posted the same video set to the same song, captioned, "POV: that one kid at lunch eating alone." The video garnered over 12 million views in six months (shown below).

Spread

The mouse meme spread over the following months as a representation of someone eating alone under sad circumstances. On March 24th, 2022, TikToker^[5] @deeep.thinkingg posted a video of the mouse captioned, "POV: your dad eating alone after everyone else already finished and left the table," garnering over 23 million views in six months (shown below, left). On August 22nd, TikToker^[6] @niush6848 posted a video of her dad eating alone, captioned, "my dad is the eating mouse meme," garnering over 3 million views in a month (shown below, right).

On August 29th, TikToker^[7] @snemthembu24 posted a video eating a sandwich alone, captioned, "was sitting on some stairs waiting for the bus on campus after a long afternoon in the lab when i realized that this was finally my mouse moment," garnering over 3 million views in two weeks (shown below).

The video inspired other TikTokers to share their mouse moments. On September 3rd, TikToker ^[8]@chloeeekardashian shared a video about her whole life being a mouse moment because of her eating disorder, garnering over 800,000 views in two weeks (shown below, left). On September 8th, TikToker^[9] @j.amie_ posted a meme claiming that being in college means having 2 "sad mouse moments" each week, garnering over 700,000 views in four days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References