About

Stranger Things Phone Drop is a selfie video fad in which participants drop their smart phones in slow motion in front of a mirror before cutting to a transformation shot, often using a costume or video filter, of the image played upside down and in reverse, so it appears as though the participant's alter ego is catching the phone (similar to Karma Is a Bitch). Over the soundtrack, the remix of theme song from the American science fiction television series Stranger Things by C418, indicating that the person catching the video is referencing the "Upside Down" or evil dimension from the series.

Origin

On July 15th, 2016, the American science fiction television series Stranger Things premiered on Netflix. The opening credits to the show is set to a theme song by Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon of electronic music band Survive(available below, left).

The earliest known example of the meme was posted on YouTube ^[1] by YouTuber AdrianOchoaFilms. In the video, a person drops the phone and appears to catch the phone in the "Upside Down" to a remix of the theme song by C418. The post (shown below, right) received more than 25,000 views in 11 days.

Spread

The following day, people began posting variations of the meme on Twitter. That day, Twitter^[2] user @YungDaygo posted a version that received more than 60 retweets and 170 likes in 10 days.

Y’all, the trailer for Stranger Things Season 3 is insane!!! pic.twitter.com/2Ih61OInqK

— nobody (@YungDaygo) April 6, 2018

That day, Twitter^[3] user @ughmileven also posted a version (shown below, left) that received more than 240 retweets and 770 likes in 10 days.

On April 7th, Twitter^[4] user @NolanR tweeted a version that features him changing into very short pants after the edit. The post (shown below, right) received more than 58,000 retweets and 138,000 likes in nine days.

Several media outlets covered the meme, including Mashable, ^[5] Nylon,^[6] Popbuzz^[7] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References