Wife Who Dies at the Beginning of the Movie
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About
Wife Who Dies at the Beginning of the Movie refers to a series of memes parodying the cliché opening sequences and flashbacks in movies showing the happy times the main character had with his now-deceased wife. The meme was started by TikTok user @warrenmartinn in September 2021 and further popularized by TikToker @nicholas_flannery's videos based on the joke in 2022.
Origin
On September 14th, 2021, TikTok[1] user @warrenmartinn posted a comedy video parodying the opening sequences in which the main character remembers happy moments he shared with his now-deceased wife. The video, which has had its sound since removed, gained over 23.4 million views and 5.5 million likes in three years (shown below).
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7007767735820225794
Spread
In the following weeks, @warrenmartinn posted more TikToks parodying the cliché or trope. For example, an upload[2] made on September 15th, 2021, garnered over 3.6 million views and 793,000 likes in three years. On October 20th, TikToker @warrenmartinn posted a video that received over 2.3 million views and 557,000 likes on TikTok[3] in the same period.
On February 15th, 2022, X[4] / Twitter user @roburnham posted a "dead wife" meme based on a jewelry commercial starring Scarlett Johansson. The meme (shown below) received over 40,000 reposts and 308,000 likes in two years.
On February 17th, TikToker[5] @nicholas_flannery started posting comedy videos parodying the cliché, with the first video in the series gaining over 630,000 views and 149,000 likes in two years (shown below, left).
In 2022 and 2023, TikToker @nicholas_flannery made 14 more memes based on the premise, with some versions going viral on the platform and being spread further through reposts. For example, part three of the series, uploaded on March 23rd, 2022, gained over 11.6 million views and 3 million likes on TikTok[6] in two years (shown below, right).
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7065786091952966917
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7078402232781262085
The meme maintained moderate popularity on TikTok and other social media in the following years.
Various Examples
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7101022226622827782
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7140006539716300038
Search Interest
External References
[1] TikTok – @warrenmartinn
[2] TikTok – @warrenmartinn
[3] TikTok – @warrenmartinn
[4] X – @roburnham
[5] TikTok – @nicholas_flannery
[6] TikTok – @nicholas_flannery
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