About

The Thinker vs. X is a phrasal template that refers to a series of videos on TikTok where Flash villain The Thinker is pitted against other characters in speculative combat, comparing his various attributes against those of the other characters. The trend began in April 2022 with comparisons to other pop culture heroes and references becoming increasingly ironic over the following weeks.

Origin

Prior to April 20th, 2022, some TikTokers started creating videos pitting a variety of characters against each other in speculative fights, comparing their various attributes and showing a video clip of the winning character (example shown below).

On April 20th, 2022, TikTokers^[1][2] @deathstroke19_ and @the_official_zoom_ posted videos pitting Flash villain The Thinker against The Ancient One from Dr. Strange (shown below, left) and The Thinker vs. Iron-Man (shown below, right), gaining over 637,000 views and 59,000 views in a month respectively. The videos use a clip of Thinker popping his collar from season four episode 22 of The Flash CW series when he wins.^[3]

Spread

The trend spread over the following month. For example, on April 21st, 2022, TikToker^[4] @the_official_zoom_ posted a video where he pits The Thinker vs. MCU characters, gaining over 800,000 views in three weeks (shown below, left). On April 25th, TikToker^[5] @deathstroke19_ posted a similar video, gaining over 1.6 million views in a similar span of time (shown below, right).

The trend became increasingly ironic in future iterations. On May 2nd, TikToker^[6] @thethinkersoloz posted a version pitting The Thinker vs. God, gaining over 247,000 views in two weeks (shown below, left). On May 4th, TikToker^[7] @d3nnys05 posted a video pitting himself against The Thinker, gaining over 658,000 views in two weeks (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References