About

Relieved Denzel Washington refers to an animated GIF featuring a scene from the 1998 action film Fallen in which the character John Hobbes (portrayed by Denzel Washington) puts his hands on his chest expressing concern before laughing in alleviation. Online, people, particularly on Twitter, use the GIF when a celebrity's name is trending, and the person wrongly assumes that celebrity has died.

Origin

On January 16, 1998, Warner Bros. released the film Fallen.^[1] In the film, Philadelphia police detective, John Hobbes investigates an apparent copycat of serial killer Edgar Reese, after he helps to apprehend and subsequently execute the criminal. In a scene of the film, Hobbes and detective Jonesy (played by John Goodman) discuss why the man was put on earth. Hobbes asking "How do you know when your moment comes" before the police station telephone rings, causing Hobbes to jokingly put his hand to his chest in relief (trailer below).

The earliest available usage of the GIF was posted on November 17th, 2014 by Redditor ^[2] sailsburystake. The post received more tahn 975 points (97% upvoted) in less than six years (shown below).

Spread

The following day, ArcheAge Forums^[3] member Bearspeed posted the GIF on ArcheAge(screenshot below).

Since then, it has been used in numerous Tweets, in earnest and in jest, as a reaction to finding out a celebrity is still alive after they've trended on the platform. One of the earliest examples of this was published on December 27th, 2016 by Twitter^[4] @sir_stride, who wrote, "Saw that Betty White was trending. She's not dead. Just people are talking about her." The post received more than 17,000 likes and 10,000 retweets in less than four years (shown below, right).

Several media outlets have covered the GIF, including UPROXX,^[5] The Mary Sue^[6] and Consequence of Sound.^[7] Some of these accounts called for the GIFs retirement due to its overuse when a celebrity trends.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References