About

The Ecstasy of Gold, also known as the Western Music Meme and "But…," refers to a series of sudden reveal memes set to the composition "The Ecstasy of Gold" by Italian composer Ennio Morricone from the soundtrack of the 1966 Spaghetti Western film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In the memes, a portion of a post is shown, with the part containing a controversial, daring or unusual statement revealed as the composition achieves its high point. In other memes, the song is used to highlight certain filmed action that goes against the established norms.

Origin

On December 23rd, 1966, Spaghetti Western film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly premiered.^[1] The soundtrack of the film, scored by Italian composer Ennio Morricone, includes the composition "The Ecstasy of Gold" (it. "L'estasi dell'oro")^[2] that plays while the character Tuco is frantically searching for a grave holding a large amount of gold (YouTube video shown below, part used in memes starts at 0:42 mark).

Spread

Fight of the Century

Prior to its use in "But…" memes, the song gained popularity in Fight of the Century TikToks that were popularized in August 2019.

On August 12th, 2019, TikTok^[3] user @tyler_wilson posted a dramatic video involving a student slapping a teacher (shown below, left). The video gained over 175,200 likes and 3,400 shares in two months. Starting in August 2019, the song gained popularity in humorous videos about students happily accepting certain challenges set by the teacher, with the composition highlighting the dramatic moments (examples shown below, center and right). As of June 10th, 2021, over 5,800 TikToks^[4] using the upload of the song by @tyler_wilson were posted.

Prior to May 26th, 2019, iFunny^[5] user fakedutchess reposted a video based on the viral photographs of Naked Asian Guy set to the composition (authorship unconfirmed, shown below).

In 2020, the video received viral spread online, including multiple reposts on Twitter.^[6][7] On August 2nd, 2020, Twitter^[8] account Everything Out of Context (@outofcontextev) reposted the video (post no longer available). On the same day, Twitter user @danekevincook posted a Team Fortress 2 video set to the song that gained over 3,600 retweets and 14,700 likes.

On August 4th, 2020, Twitter^[9] user @BigLugBun posted a video of their N-Word Counter Discord bot stats set to the composition (shown below). The video gained over 210 retweets and 1,000 likes in 10 months, with an October 23rd, 2020, reupload by YouTuber^[10] klavZ gaining 960,000 views in eight months.

pic.twitter.com/u1tBTjr1yH

— rbtfoot (@BigLugBun) August 4, 2020

"But…"

On October 21st, 2018, Redditor anglswa made a post seeking legal advice in the /r/legaladvice^[11] subreddit. In the post, angslwa wrote about unknowingly dating a 15-year-old girl who pretended to be 19. On October 22nd, 2018, Redditor razobak09 posted a link to the thread in the /r/bestoflegaladvice^[12] subreddit, summarizing the post with the title "Firstly, let me state that I'm not a pedophile. But it turns out the girl I met on Tinder and have been dating for 3 months is actually 15" (screenshot shown below). The post gained over 15,200 upvotes in six months. The title is a part of a running joke in the /r/bestoflegaladvice subreddit, with users summarizing various /r/legaladvice^[13][14] posts as "Firstly, I'm not a pedophile, but…" The first such post was made by Redditor^[15] PantsMcShirt on November 16th, 2017.

On August 8th, 2020, Twitter^[16] user @thecreator_wav posted a video (authorship unconfirmed, shown below) that combined two still images of razobak09's post with the composition. The video opens with the post partially hidden, reading "Firstly, let me state that I'm not a pedophile." As the composition reaches its high point, the word "but" is revealed. The video received over 253,000 views, 4,600 retweets and 26,300 likes in one year.

pic.twitter.com/RGHT4QbRye

— it is ĭ̠̯̳̼̜͔̤͙̝͙̗̳̩͎͚̜̳̞̮̒̓̀͆̋́͑̀̌̑̀̈͂̀̄̉̈͒̏̎̈́͟͡ (@thecreator_wav) August 8, 2020

In the following months, the video received viral spread through multiple reposts,^[17][18] inspiring more similar videos in late 2020 and 2021. For example, on January 21st, 2021, Redditor ClassyMate07 posted a meme based on a viral Twitter^[19] thread by @VeggitalesFacts, with the post gaining over 5,400 upvotes in the /r/pyrocynical^[20] subreddit in five months. A January 27th YouTube^[21] reupload (shown below, left) gained over 1.5 million views in the same period. On February 9th, 2021, YouTube^[22] user Plastered Toe posted a Last Online meme that gained over 1.8 million views (shown below, right), with a February 14th, 2021 reupload^[23] gaining additional 4.6 million views.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References