About

"Red Flags" is a comedy song by Tom Cardy featuring Montaigne about a man who goes on a date with a woman only to find out that her favorite movie is The Human Centipede, seeing it as a red flag. The song was released along with a music video in December 2022, inspiring animation memes on YouTube. In July 2023, the song went viral on TikTok, specifically the portion, "I try to get the waiter's attention by blinking in morse code," inspiring another wave of animation memes on the platform.

Origin

On December 1st, 2022, YouTuber^[1] and musician Tom Cardy posted an animated music video for his song "Red Flags," which is about a date between a man and woman that goes wrong when she reveals that her favorite movie is The Human Centipede. The man sees this as a red flag and thinks she might murder him or make him into a human centipede if he continues the date, but then overcomes these fears throughout the song. The video gained over 18 million views in seven months (shown below).

Spread

The song and music video became the subject of animation memes on YouTube the month it was uploaded. For example, on December 4th, 2022, YouTuber^[2] TOTOSHKA posted an animation to the song referencing Brawl Stars, garnering over 280,000 views in seven months (shown below, left). On December 23rd, YouTuber^[3] noriee404 posted a version using characters from Wednesday, garnering over 379,000 views in seven months (shown below, right).

On February 13th, 2023, YouTuber^[4] Settero posted an animation meme that garnered over 1.1 million views in five months (shown below).

In July, animation memes using the song, as well as sped-up and slowed down versions of the song, became popular on TikTok. On July 12th, TikToker^[5] @yesshejumped posted an animation to the song, garnering over 4.6 million views in a week (shown below, left). On July 13th, TikToker^[6] @tabita.x_ posted a South Park animation meme to the song, garnering over 1.7 million views in a week (shown below, right).

On July 18th, TikToker^[7] @notlevismassiveschl0ng posted a version of the meme based on Across the Spider-Verse, garnering over 2 million views in three days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References