About

Staring Donkey or Donkey Reaction refers to several Staring Animals reaction images of the character Donkey looking sad from the 2010 animated film Shrek Forever After. The reaction images gained virality in December 2021, first among Portuguese-speaking and Spanish-speaking users and later globally.

Origin

On May 21st, 2010, the animated film Shrek Forever After premiered.^[1] In one scene of the film, the character Donkey attempts to woo his wife Dragon, with his expression quickly changing from that of terror into a somewhat nervous smile as the song "Hello" by Lionel Richie plays (scene shown below).

On December 30th, 2020, Twitter^[2] user @zayJax_ was the first to highlight the frame, with the tweet gaining 15 retweets and 180 likes in two years (shown below).

On April 13th, 2021, TikToker^[3] ___kawany posted the earliest known viral meme based on the scene, captioning it, "my sister and brother-in-law on their first date." The post received over 2 million views and 120,300 likes in one year (shown below).

Prior to December 8th, 2021, an unknown user created a symmetrical edit of Donkey's face from the scene (original frame shown below, left; edit shown below, right).

Spread

On December 8th, 2021, Facebook^[4] page Jaimeme shared the first viral meme based on the edited image (authorship unconfirmed). The post (shown below) received over 820 reactions and 78 shares in four months.

(My face when I ask someone for a movie opinion and they send me a link to a video by El Mundo de Zowl)

In the following weeks, the meme received viral spread online through reposts on Facebook and Twitter. For example, on December 23rd, 2021, Twitter^[5] user @TKagari reposted the image, with the post gaining over 280 retweets and 3,400 likes in three months.

In later December 2021, the image achieved major virality in image captions among Spanish-speaking users on Facebook^[6][7] (example posts shown below).

(Me on the 25th when I check under the tree and see that Angela Aguilar isn't here / When it's December 28th but your friend is still a Dun fan)

On February 27th, 2022, Twitter^[8] user @ZeroRhythmKing posted a stretched close-up image of Donkey from the scene, with the post gaining over 10,100 retweets and 105,300 likes in one month (shown below).

In the following weeks, this and the symmetrical image gained prominence as reactions and source material for memes among Western users, primarily on Twitter and Reddit.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References