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Skeleton Whispering in Man's Ear
Part of a series on Classical Art Memes. [View Related Entries]
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About
Skeleton Whispering in Man's Ear refers to a series of two-panel memes based on the 1872 painting Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle, a personification of death playing a fiddle next to the artist's ear. In memes, the skeleton is seen tempting the man to break his resolve, whispering various suggestions into his ear. The format achieved virality as a TikTok slideshow format in April 2024.
Origin
The meme format is based on the 1872 painting Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle by Swedish artist Arnold Böcklin. The portrait, itself inspired by a 1540 painting, depicts the artist with a brush and a palette leaning back toward a personification of death playing a fiddle (shown below).
Prior to early April 2024, the painting saw limited presence in memes. For example, on March 5th, 2024, TikToker[1] @gokublacksolosurverse posted a Minecraft meme based on it that gained over 18,900 views and 550 likes in two months (shown below).
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7342857831315492127
The painting achieved initial popularity as a slideshow format in early April 2024 among French-speaking TikTok users when it was split into two parts, captioned with dialogue and paired with the "Akatsuki Theme" from Naruto. On April 7th, 2024, TikToker[2] leo_socha1 uploaded the earliest found notable meme based on the format. The post (shown below, left and right) received over 1.1 million views and 142,000 likes in one month.
"Opened the dishwasher and finished cleaning" / "Close it…"
Spread
More French memes based on the format were posted to TikTok in the following days. For example, on April 8th, 2024, TikTok[3] user @onetwothree_soleil posted a meme that garnered over 1.6 million views and 147,000 likes in one month (shown below, left and center left). On April 11th, TikTok[4] user @111juliebachelier posted a meme that received over 1.5 million views and 173,000 likes in three weeks (shown below, center right and right).
On April 12th, TikTok[5] user @getourade posted the earliest found notable English meme based on the format. The meme about cosplaying (shown below) received over 1.4 million views and 248,000 likes in three weeks.
More memes based on the format went viral on TikTok in the following weeks (examples shown below). As of April 30th, 2024, over 26,500 posts using the "Akatsuki Theme," primarily Skeleton Whispering in Man's Ear memes, were posted to TikTok.[6]
Various Examples
Template
Search Interest
External References
[1] TikTok – @gokublacksolosurverse
[2] TikTok – @leo_socha1
[3] TikTok – @onetwothree_soleil
[4] TikTok – @111juliebachelier
[5] TikTok – @getourade
[6] TikTok – son original
