What is the "emotional damage" meme?
The "emotional damage" meme is a clip of Steven He reacting to an insult. In the clip, He—a Chinese-Irish actor and comedian—says, "Emotional damage!" in a loud voice with a heavy Cantonese accent. Since this clip first debuted in 2022, it's become a viral meme on TikTok. In a typical use of the meme, TikTok creators attach it to the end of videos featuring ironic and unironic insults that target a person's insecurities. This TikTok posted by @funny.memes584 in September 2023 is a perfect example of how the meme works. In the video, a man asks Siri (the voice assistant on Apple's iPhones and iPads) which Apple products he can afford based on his bank account balance. Siri responds, "Apple juice." Immediately afterward, the scene cuts to He loudly saying, "Emotional damage!" The humor comes from the fact that the man's account balance is so low, the only "apple" product he can afford is juice, not an iPhone or an iPad. It's as if Siri is insulting how little money he has.
Emotional Damage Meme Origins
The "emotional damage" clip is originally from YouTuber Steven He. In his viral YouTube video, "When 'Asian' Is a Difficulty Mode," He pretends to play a video game on a difficulty mode called Asian. His character dies easily after interacting with seemingly random things, like a dead leaf falling from a tree. Later, the character encounters an enemy named Aunty, and she kills him by saying, "Steven, when you get so fat?" The character dies, and the words "Emotional Damage" flash in red across the screen. The scene switches back to He as the player, who throws down his controller and reads the words in an exaggerated Cantonese accent ("Ee-motion-al dam-age!"). "When 'Asian' Is a Difficulty Mode" premiered on September 21, 2021, and now has over 64 million views! He also posted a clip of the "emotional damage" part of the video as a YouTube Short on April 2, 2022, and that version has more than 23 million views. Aunty calling He's character "fat" is "emotional damage" because it insults something the character feels emotionally insecure about: his weight.
The clip of He saying "Emotional damage!" quickly went viral on TikTok. Millions of people started "stitching," or adding, the clip at the end of TikToks of people throwing down ironic and unironic zingers. In some cases, they simply included the words "Emotional damage" in the TikTok caption, trusting their audience to know what meme they were referring to. This TikTok (reuploaded to YouTube as a normal video) is an early example of the "emotional damage" meme. In the first part of the video, singer-songwriter Billie Eilish says, "If you give an ugly guy a chance, he thinks he rules the world." In the second part, a male TikTok creator responds to Eilish's quote by saying, "You give a depressed girl some autotune, she thinks she can sing." This is meant as an insult to Eilish, implying that her singing voice needs to be "tuned" during editing to sound pleasing. The video ends with He's famous, "Emotional damage!" clip. Another example is this viral TikTok uploaded by @tikplier. It's a clip from a YouTube video by Markiplier, a popular filmmaker and gamer. In the clip, Markiplier asks Siri to call him and his friend "daddy." Siri says, "I don't see a father in your Contacts." In our last example (uploaded to TikTok by @this_is_me_yes_it_is), a man asks his girlfriend how many people she's slept with. She thinks about it and then says, "I've only slept with you." When he says, "Are you being serious, really?" she replies, "Yeah, I'm serious! Everyone else kept me up all night."
"Emotional Damage" TikTok Song Explained
The "Emotional Damage" song is a mashup of the meme and a Bastille song. On December 28, 2021, TikTok user William Li (@williamlimusic) posted a video in which he edited Steven He yelling, "Emotional damage!" over the song "Pompeii" by Bastille. He called the mashup "Emotional Damage vs Pompeii." The song has been reused in over 80K videos from other creators and has also been recreated by other TikTokers, fueling its spread across the platform.
TikTokers use the song to react to things they find sad or upsetting. For example, in this viral video by @maximillienchen, the song plays as the creator lists books his elementary school teacher made him read that were sad and traumatic, like Old Yeller. In another popular TikTok, @callmegrand parodies his emotions before and after seeing the movie Spider-Man: No Way Home with the mashup playing over it.
Uncle Roger Emotional Damage Meme Explained
YouTuber Uncle Roger recreated the "emotional damage" meme in 2022. Uncle Roger, whose real name is Nigel Ng, is an incredibly popular Malaysian YouTube creator. He's best known for his exaggerated Cantonese accent and his scathing critiques of chefs who try to cook authentic Asian cuisine. He's credited with spreading the "emotional damage" meme to millions more people on the internet through a video titled, "Uncle Roger Review Matty Matheson Butter Chicken." Close to the end of the video, Uncle Roger insults chef Matty Matheson's attempts to cook butter chicken by saying, "Maybe this guy like breast [as in chicken breast] because he has two of them." Then he says, "Emotional damage!" in imitation of Steven He. Uncle Roger then adds (in a more normal voice), "That is a great meme when you just want to say something mean to somebody. That meme makes every insult acceptable." Uncle Roger's video has over 8 million views!
Emotional Damage Meaning in Real Life
"Emotional damage" refers to the impact of trauma on a person's emotions. A person can feel emotionally damaged from a traumatic experience, like bullying. They can also experience it from something more mundane, like an offhand remark criticizing their appearance, their job, or some other personal characteristic or flaw. The real-life impact of this damage is often low self-esteem, trust issues, a hard time being intimate with others, and other negative side effects. The emotional damage meme can be a way for people to laugh at and cope with their pain.
Other Viral TikTok Memes to Make You Laugh
Curious where other viral TikTok memes come from? Don't worry, we've got the scoop! From oi oi oi baka to Italian brainrot, we reveal where the latest TikTok trends come from and what rocketed them to viral status. Continue your deep dive into niche internet humor with these explainers: What Is Italian Brainrot? What Does Oi Oi Oi Baka Mean? What Is the "Bombastic Side Eye" Trend on TikTok? What Turning 19 in Poland Means on X & TikTok What Does Skibidi Ohio Rizz Mean?
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