About

*Record scratch* *Freeze frame* refers to a movie cliché in which a character is introduced by the sound of a vinyl record scratch followed by a freeze frame, which is typically followed by a voice-over narration of the character explaining how they arrived in their current predicament.

Origin

On 4chan's /tv/ (television and film) board, users often identify and mock common tropes in film. On June 13th, 2015, a /tv/^[1] user posted a mock film introductory sequence in which a record scratches, the frame freezes and a character begin discussing how they "got here" (shown below).

Spread

On January 9th, 2016, Sheeky Forums^[3] user DeathDog posted a thread about the trope. The following day, Sheeky Forums^[5] user Fried_Sushi started a thread for specific examples of the trope in film and television. On January 11th, a thread was posted to the /v/ (video games) board on 4chan mocking the film trope in an introduction for the character Kratos from the video game series God of War (shown below).^[4]

On January 19th, Twitter user @cbanks420lol posted a picture of a crucified Jesus Christ captioned with the "record scratch freeze frame" joke (shown below). In the next week, other Twitter users posted similar tweets mocking the film trope.^[2]

Obama and Trump Meeting

On November 10th, 2016, president-elect Donald Trump visited the Oval Office to talk to Barack Obama about foreign and domestic policy. Following their meeting, they met with reporters for a brief conference and photo opportunity. In one photo, a weary-looking Obama looks to the camera while shaking hands with Trump (shown below, left). That day, Twitter user @lifeincartoon^[7] posted the photo along with a "*Record scratch* *Freeze frame*" caption (shown below, right). Within 72 hours, the tweet gathered upwards of 300,000 likes and 171,400 retweets.

On November 11th, Redditor Do_I_have_to_move submitted a screenshot of the tweet to the /r/memeeconomy^[8] subreddit, joking that "Record scratch freeze frame memes are on the up and up." In 48 hours, the post garnered more than 8,100 votes (88% upvoted) and 180 comments. On November 13th, Imgur^[6] user satankitten uploaded the image macro in a gallery of election-themed memes titled "Using memes to hide the pain."

Search Interest

External References