About

Stressed Homelander is a clip of the character Homelander, played by actor Antony Starr, from the Amazon superhero series The Boys acting stressed and exhaling deeply through his mouth with his cheeks puffed out. In early July 2022, the clip gained virality as an exploitable and source material for video or GIF caption memes.

Origin

On July 1st, 2022, episode seven, titled "Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed," of season three of the superhero series The Boys premiered.^[1] In one scene of the episode, the main villain Homelander, portrayed by Antony Starr, is giving a speech in which he denies allegations against him and Vought International, a company that manages him and his team. During the speech, Homelander briefly mistakes a stranger for another superhero who recently attempted to kill him. After giving the speech, Homelander goes backstage where he acts stressed and hyperventilates (clip shown below).

On July 2nd, 2022, gimmick Twitter^[2] account @GenZlaughs posted a user-submitted video caption meme in which the clip was captioned with the When the Hoes Arrive meme. The video received over 854,000 views, 8,800 retweets and 71,400 likes in one week (shown below).

pic.twitter.com/4EBnoDTkKD

— GenerationZ Humor (@GenZlaughs) July 2, 2022

Spread

In the following days, the clip was used in more video caption memes on Twitter and TikTok. For example, on July 2nd, 2022, TikToker^[3] @new.sigma posted a Sigma Male meme that gained over 1.3 million views and 201,700 likes in one week (shown below).

On July 5th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user @myvillaneve posted a caption meme about introverts that received over 23,000 retweets and 114,000 likes in three days (shown below).

me when i have to go outside and socialize pic.twitter.com/0BAJYb8pmI

— k | the boys spoilers (@myvillaneve) July 5, 2022

Various Examples

me when i remember there’s only one episode left of the boys pic.twitter.com/0BAJYb8pmI

— k | the boys spoilers (@myvillaneve) July 3, 2022

pic.twitter.com/58Ph8VQ4kC

— Bibawen (@asimbawe) July 5, 2022

Introverts after a Zoom call. pic.twitter.com/Qw1wOi1PYW

— Ariel Relaford (@ArielRelaford) July 5, 2022

Template

Search Interest

External References