About

Saranghae Mickey refers to a scene from the 2017 Mickey Mouse episode "Locked in Love" where Mickey says, "Saranghae" (Korean for "I love you") to Minnie three times in increasingly formal ways, his voice getting deeper each time until it's unrecognizable as Mickey Mouse's. The clip was uploaded to TikTok in late September 2022 and inspired a lip-dub and fan art redrawing trend on the platform over the following weeks.

Origin

On July 28th, 2017, Mickey Mouse season four episode four, titled "Locked in Love," aired. The episode's dialogue is entirely Korean. In the episode, Mickey and Minnie get locked together after losing the key for a heart-shaped lock attaching them to each other's wrists. Before the lock closes, Mickey tells Minnie he loves her in Korean in increasingly formal ways, starting with, "Saranghae," the most casual form of the word, then "saranghaeyo" and finally "saranghamnida," the most formal version, with Minnie swooning, "Mickey" after every time.^[1] The cartoon was uploaded to the Mickey Mouse YouTube^[2] channel on July 29th, 2017, garnering over 15 million views in five years (shown below). On September 26th, 2022, TikToker @cjrebirth posted the clip to TikTok,^[3] garnering over 6 million views in a week.

Spread

In early October 2022, the original sound saw an increase in use in lip-dub skits and videos where users draw the interaction between Mickey and Minnie. For example, on October 1st, TikTokers^[4][5] @joo1vy and @australialix posted videos lip dubbing to the sound, garnering over 3.3 million and 2.1 million views, respectively, in four days (shown below, left and right).

On October 2nd, 2022, TikToker^[6] @dionsur14 posted a video where he draws Mickey and Miney in exaggerated ways through the audio, garnering over 5.7 million views in three days (shown below, left). On October 4th, TikToker^[7] @artbybamuel posted a similar video, garnering over 5.1 million views in a day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References