About

Tom Hiddleston is an English actor best known for portraying the villain Loki in the Marvel Comics' live-action film adaptations of Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012) and Thor: The Dark World (2013). On the web, the actor has developed a large fan following who call themselves “Hiddlestoners,” most notably on the sites DeviantArt and Tumblr.

Acting Career

Hiddleston began his acting career in the early 2000s by landing minor TV roles in a number of BBC drama series, most notably as the son of Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm, before winning his breakthrough role as the Marvel Comics supervillain Loki in live action film adaptations of Marvel Comics series Thor and The Avengers. Since rising to prominence in 2011, Hiddleston has appeared in other films, including Steven Spielberg's World War I film War Horse and Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris.

Online History

On June 21st, 2011, Urban Dictionary^[3] user Athena the Elusive Spark submitted an entry for the term "Hiddlestoner," defining it as "someone who worships the glory that is Tom Hiddleston." On January 20th, 2012, the site Tom Hiddleston Online^[7] was created, featuring news, press, photos and biographical information related to the actor. On June 28th, a Facebook^[6] fan page for Tom Hiddleston was launched, garnering over 448,000 likes in the first 17 months. On July 29th, 2013, Redditor EvilOldHausFrau submitted a photograph of Hiddleston (shown below) to the /r/LadyBoners^[2] subreddit, where it received upwards of 1,700 up votes and 25 comments in the following four months.

On October 14th, 2013, YouTuber CEO1213 uploaded a video of Hiddleston performing the Melbourne shuffle dance during an interview for Korean television (shown below). On October 16th, Redditor thelast_timelord submitted the video to the /r/videos^[1] subreddit. In the first month, the video gained over 1.1 million views and the Reddit post gathered more than 4,700 up votes and 370 comments. As of November 2013, the @twhiddleston^[5] Twitter feed has gathered upwards of 835,000 followers.

Loki Fandom

Following the release of the 2012 film Marvel’s The Avengers, a fandom arose surrounding Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal of the villain Loki. In April of 2012, a Quickmeme^[22] page titled “Loki” was created, which features photographs of Hiddleston that can be edited with custom captions. On April 4th, a Facebook^[26] page titled “I Love Tom Hiddleston (Loki Page)” was launched, accumulating more than 15,000 likes in the first 16 months. On Tumblr, several Loki-related fan blogs have been launched, including “F Yeah Loki,”^[23] “Loki Lovers”^[24] and “Loki’s Monster Crotch.”^[25] On July 21st, 2013, Hiddleston appeared as Loki at the San Diego Comic-Con and took over comedian Chris Hardwick’s panel to address the audience (shown below).

As of November 2013, there are over 210,000 search results for the keyword "loki" on the art-sharing website Deviantart, many of which contain fan illustrations of Hiddleston's portrayal of the character (shown below).

Related Memes

Get Loki

Several versions of the 2013 disco song "Get Lucky" by the French house music duo Daft Punk with the words "Get Loki" substituted into the chorus have been posted to YouTube. On July 15th, YouTuber P.L. Boucher uploaded a "Get Loki" music video sung by several members from The Avengers superhero team (shown below, left). On July 25th, YouTuber Galo Frito uploaded another "Get Loki" parody, featuring sexual lyrics about The Avengers (shown below, right). In the next four months, the videos garnered more than 330,000 and 2.2 million views respectively.

On October 30th, YouTuber Pathé NL posted an interview with Hiddleston, in which he sings a "Get Loki" parody of the Daft Punk track (shown below).

Tom Hiddleston Accidentally Groping People

On November 8th, 2013, YouTuber Smosh posted an interview with Hiddleston in which he impersonated Thor: The Dark World costar Natalie Portman's pose from a promotional poster for the film (shown below).

On the following day, Tumblr^[4] user The King Himself posted a photoshopped version of the poster featuring Hiddleston's impersonation superimposed over Portman (shown below, left). In the first four days, the post gathered more than 35,000 notes. Others began photoshopping Hiddleston's pose into a variety of other base images, including a poster for the 2013 superhero film Iron Man 3 (shown below, middle) and an animated GIF of Aragorn from the fantasy film series The Lord of the Rings (shown below, right).

Personal Life

Hiddleston was born on February 9th, 1981 in Westminster, London. He began acting during prepartory school when his parents were going through a divorce. Hiddleston earned a double first in Classics from the Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge.

Search Interest

External References