About

That Friend Who Always Looking For Attention is a reaction image depicting a man choking himself to get the attention of others. The meme comes from a "viral video": by TikToker @_yogi75 uploaded to the app in August 2023. The screenshot of the TikToker choking himself, as well as the video in general, were popularized as reaction memes throughout 2024, particularly on X / Twitter and Instagram.

Origin

On August 7th, 2023, TikToker^[1] @_yogi75 posted a skit captioned, "nobody:, that friend who always looking for attention," garnering over 5.9 million views in a year. In the video, the TikToker does and says several things that an attention-seeking friend might do to garner the attention they desire, always looking directly at the camera after each example. In the last section of the video, the TikTokers puts his hands across his neck and makes a muffled screaming noise, as if choking himself.

On November 13th, X^[2] user @KenHeLive reposted the video, writing, "Steph Stan’s acting like he’s been in poverty for most of his career because he no longer has by far the best supporting cast in basketball:" garnering around 80 likes in a year. This is the earliest known example of the video being used as a reaction meme.

Spread

The meme became increasingly popular throughout 2024. On July 14th, 2024, u/BlockIll3947 posted a screenshot to /r/196^[3] of a now-deleted tweet by @cindtrillella, who posted the reaction image as a response to a post about Elon Musk claiming he's had two people try to kill him in 2024, garnering over 1,500 upvotes in five months. It was posted by Instagram^[4] user patiasfantasyworld that same day, garnering over 18,000 likes in the same span of time.

On October 9th, X^[5] user @grandv1per posted the meme in response to another user writing, "Completely unrelated but American schools having their country flag in classrooms is fucking crazy behaviour," garnering over 80,000 likes in two months.

On December 3rd, X^[6] user @CHRlSTITTIES posted the reaction meme along with the caption, "apple music users posting their wrapped," garnering over 134,000 likes and 9,000 reposts in two days. The meme was reposted by Instagram^[7] user de4dg1rls on December 4th, garnering over 6,000 likes in a day. It was also added to a list on The Chive^[8] covering Spotify wrapped memes.

Various Examples

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Related Memes

People Who Be DESPERATE for Attention

People Who Be DESPERATE for Attention refers to a viral video originally posted by TikToker Kam Edwards in which he plays a guy sighing loudly, trying to get the attention of his friends. The original video was posted in 2023 and it became a reaction video on Twitter / X and elsewhere going into 2024. It was commonly used in quotes to dunk on people who seemed to be trying too hard to receive attention akin to bait and engagement bait.

Search Interest

External References