About

Pedro Pascal Laughing Then Crying, or Pedro Pascal Crying, refers to a 2020 viral video of actor Pedro Pascal laughing hysterically then transitioning smoothly into crying. People began using the clip as a reaction to various sad or ironically sad video clips in early 2021, particularly on TikTok, in association with the track "Space Song" by Beach House. The meme format spread to Instagram and social media at large in May of that year.

Origin

During the week of July 21st, 2020, Pedro Pascal and a number of actors, including Paul Giamatti, performed a reading of the play "I, My Ruination" virtually for the Cape Cod Theater Project's 2020 Benefit Reading Series.^[2] At one point in the performance, Pascal smoothly transitions from laughing hysterically to crying hysterically (shown below).

On November 30th, 2020, YouTuber Big House posted a clip from the performance of Pascal crying set to Guts' Theme from the anime Berzerk, garnering over 141,000 views in six months (shown below). This is one of the earliest videos to use the clip as a meme.

Spread

On March 25th, 2021, YouTuber^[1] Encarni Pascal posted the full version of the reading.

In April, the clip began to spread around TikTok, where users attached it to Beach House's 2015 track "Space Song," often timing a transition in the song with the transition of Pascal's emotions and another video used as reaction material. For example, on April 19th, Tiktoker^[3] @_corazxn_ posted a video using the clip as a reaction to a scene from Jujutsu Kaizen, garnering over 2.3 million views in a month (shown below).

Over the course of the month, the original sound^[4] "space song" by TikToker aspen (not the official sound for the song) was used extensively for videos featuring Pascal reacting to various clips.

On April 28th, TikToker @itzbreezytk posted a video combining the clip with one of El Risitas Laughing, garnering over 2.2 million views in under a month (shown below, left). On April 29th, TikToker @tevtur posted the video along with a clip from Gravity Falls, garnering over 3.7 million views in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

By May, the format had spread significantly, appearing more frequently on Instagram and other social media platforms.

On May 16th, Instagram user @Bepis.man posted a video using the clip to react to a clip from the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars garnering over 232,000 views in a day (shown below).

On the same day, Instagram user @idieasavirgin posted another version of the meme, garnering over 7,000 likes in a day (shown below)

On May 17th, YouTuber^[5] Lessons In Meme Culture posted a video about the meme.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References