Okay, Well, That's Interesting. You Know Why? Why? Because *Runs Away*

About

Okay, Well, That's Interesting. You Know Why? Why? Because *Runs Away* refers to a scene from the show Parks and Recreation in which the character Ben Wyatt (played by Adam Scott) runs away from Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) after responding to her with "that's interesting." The scene became a meme on TikTok in early 2023 in which TikTokers used the audio as a TikTok sound, reenacting the scene under different circumstances. The jokes mostly symbolized the meme creator "running away" from a confrontation, question or problem.

Origin

On January 23rd, 2014, season six, episode 12 of Parks and Recreation titled "Farmer's Market" aired on American television.^[1] At the episode's 12:38-minute mark, it's night time and the character Ben Wyatt is outside Pawnee City Hall with Leslie Knope when he tells her, "Okay, well, that's interesting. You know why?" Knope then says, "Why?" to which Wyatt runs away towards the street (shown below).

Currently, the scene's first known usage in a meme was posted by TikToker^[2] @memesfromtvandfilm on April 7th, 2023, in which they captioned the scene, "Me when I'm confronted." The video gained roughly 1.9 million plays and 282,700 likes in one month (shown below).

Spread

Going into April 2023, various TikTokers used @memesfromtvandfilm's TikTok^[3] sound for their own videos in which they would recreate the Parks and Recreation scene, adding a caption that inserted them into a different scenario or setting. For instance, one of the earliest, viral instances was uploaded by TikToker^[3] @northvalleygrp on April 14th, 2023, that had text about getting information from TikTok, earning roughly 2.2 million plays and 499,200 likes in three weeks (shown below, left). On April 30th, TikToker^[4] @kaldentrainor posted the most viral iteration in the TikTok^[3] sound's one-month span, earning roughly 6.8 million plays and 2.1 million likes in four days (shown below, right).

Going into May 2023, verified TikTokers and notable influencers on the app started adding to the trend. For instance, on May 3rd, 2023, Olivia Dunne uploaded a TikTok^[5] as part of the trend, gaining roughly 617,100 plays and 80,700 likes in one day (shown below).

Over the course of the TikTok^[3] sound's one-month span, it amassed roughly 72,900 videos using it.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

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External References