About

Rainbow Dolphin, also known as Hopecore Dolphin, Symphony Dolphin or the Zara Larsson Dolphin Meme, refers to a series of image macro and reaction images using illustrations of dolphins jumping out of water paired with demotivational quotes and honest confessions, similar to the How I See the World After X phrasal template.

The dolphin images and memes are often accompanied by the chorus from Zara Larsson's song "Symphony," in which she sings, "I just wanna be part of your symphony," which was popularized on TikTok in late August 2024. Many have also noted that the images of the dolphins resemble Lisa Frank artwork.

Origin

On August 18th, 2024, TikTok^[1] user @heiratet posted one of the earliest versions of the Symphony Dolphin meme, which features a picture of a dolphin jumping out of the water with the text overlay "I'm depressed" and Zara Larsson's song "Symphony" playing in the background. The post (seen below) amassed over 889,000 plays and 210,000 likes in three days.

One of the main images used in the rainbow dolphin meme was posted by Redditor^[4] SaturnFive on June 25th, 2023, which amassed roughly 180 upvotes in a year (seen below).

Spread

The reverse hopecore format of the dolphin memes was popularized on TikTok over the next few days, inspiring many demotivational quotes and honest confessions accompanied by wholesome illustrations of dolphins swimming in the ocean.

For example, on August 21st, 2024, TikTok^[2] user @_c.h.e.r.r.i.e.s uploaded an image of sea animals swimming accompanied by the text, "No, I don't have balls… but spiritually mine are bigger than yours." The post (seen below) amassed roughly 21,000 likes in a day.

Also on August 21st, 2024, the singer Zara Larsson^[3] shared a version of the meme on TikTok featuring a dolphin jumping out of the water and the text, "What the fuck is happening," which amassed over 13 million plays and 3.2 million likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References