Screen-Reaching Hand / Emoji

About

Screen-Reaching Emoji refers to an image of a non-Unicode emoji with bloodshot eyes and pursed lips appearing to be reaching for the screen with its hand. A variation of the Stressed Emoji, the image saw extensive use as a reaction and an exploitable and inspired similarly-executed images of popular characters reaching for the screen. Examples of the meme are often paired with fourth-wall-breaking captions such as "You Think You're Safe?" and "Hand Them Over."

Origin

The exact origin of the image is unknown. On August 8th, 2019, Instagram user salad.snake posted an edit based on "Hamburger Cheeseburger Big Mac Whopper" song featuring the emoji together with several other Cursed Emojis which gained over 112,000 views in two months (reupload shown below).^[1]

Precursor

On July 1st, 2019, Twitter user FloPerfecto psoted a video of the character Rika Furude from the visual novel Higurashi When They Cry. In the clip, a hand reaches passed the character and toward the viewer (shown below). The post received more than 100,000 views, 8,300 likes and 3,000 retweets in six months.

pic.twitter.com/BRlOOW6qkM

— Flo. (@FloPerfecto) July 1, 2019

Spread

In the following days, the image saw notable use on Twitter as a reaction. On August 15th, 2019, Twitter user @PeachyKneeSocks posted a meme based on the emoji which gained over 99,700 retweets and 368,400 likes in two months, prompting the further spread of the meme.^[2]

In the following weeks, memes in which various characters extended their hand towards the viewer in a similar fashion to the emoji gained popularity online. For example, on August 26th, 2019, Redditor spectre15 posted an image of Annoying Orange executed in a similar fashion.^[3]

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References