About

Zoolander Stare, also known as Zoolander Sees Hansel On The Red Carpet, is an exploitable image macro meme that uses a scene from the 2001 comedy film Zoolander, directed by and starring actor Ben Stiller, in which the character Zoolander strikes his signature "Blue Steel" pose staring into the camera. The meme format often uses a mashup of the songs "Who Is She?" by I Monster and "The Perfect Girl" by Mareux with text captions overlaid on the clip. The template was popularized in November and December 2022, primarily on TikTok in conjunction with Lightskin Stare memes.

Origin

On September 28th, 2001, the American comedy film Zoolander was released. The movie opened with an award show red carpet scene in which the titular character (played by Ben Stiller) eyes his in-film nemesis Hansel (Owen Wilson). On November 27th, 2022, TikToker @itssnotq posted a video about the Lightskin Stare, using the aforementioned Zoolander scene of Stiller's character staring dramatically into the camera. The post gathered over 3 million plays and 300,000 likes in over a week (seen below).^[1]

Spread

In late November and early December 2022, the Zoolander video alongside a mashup of "Who Is She?" by I Monster (seen below, left)^[2] and "The Perfect Girl" by Mareux (seen below, right)^[3] began to go viral online, primarily in various TikTok memes.

On November 29th, 2022, TikToker^[4] @midworldwitch_ka19 posted a version of the meme with a mashup of the aforementioned songs. The post gathered over 2 million plays and 400,000 likes in over a week (seen below).

The meme soon began to gain traction, with TikToker^[5] @sardinetoast posting an edit on December 5th, 2022, gathering over 2 million plays and 400,000 likes in three days (seen below, left). That same day, TikToker^[6] @someone_1980 then posted an edit, gathering over 400,000 plays and 90,000 likes in three days (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References