A new meme called ‘Pepe the King Prawn’ has been going viral on TikTok. This has naturally sparked interest among netizens who are curious about the meme’s origins and meaning.
Here is everything you need to know about TikTok’s ‘Pepe the King Prawn’ meme.
What is the ‘Pepe the King Prawn’ meme?
The ‘Pepe the King Prawn’ meme on TikTok involves users sharing a picture of Pepe the King Prawn, a popular Muppets character, having a blank and shocked facial expression. This picture is accompanied by text describing surprising or embarrassing but ultimately relatable moments they experienced. It is accompanied by a slowed-down version of Madonna’s Like a Prayer.
This trend was supposedly popularized by TikTok user Caity Cline. On November 17, she posted two images on the social media site. Both images included Pepe the King Prawn, who had a blank expression. However, one of them was captioned, “Sometimes I’m late because I’m spending too much time like this:”
Cline then shared two more memes. One was captioned, “My face when someone asks me to do a math equation in my head.” The other meme was captioned, “The face I make when I’m trying to maintain great customer service while getting screamed at.” The second meme got heavily popularized and prompted other users to join the trend, recounting their own shocking experiences using Pepe’s blank expression picture.
For example, here is one user recounting the experience of hearing tapping on her second-story bedroom window and how it led to an investigation, where she learned that her brother had become a police suspect. As she recounted the story, the picture got magnified, evoking the building suspicion. It finally concluded with an enlarged version of the picture, signifying a massive surprise.
Here is another user sharing their realization that the exam they studied for was nothing like what they learned during lectures.
As of this writing, over 15.4k Pepe the King Prawn meme posts have been uploaded on TikTok.
