Big Nate Sus

About

Big Nate Sus refers to a series of memes, most commonly video edits, based on scenes from the Nickelodeon series Big Nate that paint the title character as sus, meaning suspicious or used as slang for "gay." Two of the main scenes used, sourced from promotional material from the series, show Nate farting in a student's face as a prank and Nate getting a dog to drink from a device strapped to his belly that simulates a mother dog's breasts. The edits became popularized on YouTube and TikTok in late January 2022.

Origin

On January 11th, 2022, the trailer for Nickelodeon's Big Nate, an animated Paramount+ series (based on the series of books by the same name) about a rebellious sixth-grader named Nate, was released (shown below). At the 1:20 mark, Big Nate's teacher tells him not to drop a beaker of liquid. He drops it in defiance, causing gas to fill the screen.

On January 15th, YouTuber RedHairMan posted an edit of the scene where Nate drops the beaker and there's an explosion, gaining over 31,000 views in two weeks (shown below). This is one of the earliest memes to use the footage.

On January 21st, the Nickelodeon Cartoon Universe YouTube channel published a short episode to introduce the series. In one scene at the 2:08 mark, Nate tricks one student into doing a sit-up with his eyes closed, telling him it's hard to accomplish. When the kid does the sit-up Nate is positioned with his posterior to the kid's nose so it lands in it as he hits the peak of the sit-up, then farting in his face multiple times (shown below).

On the same day, RedHairMan posted "Another Big Nate Meme," this one an edit of the above scene, replacing the farting sound effect, gaining over 40,000 views in 10 days (shown below).

Spread

On January 21st, 2022, TikToker @funnyfanatic posted an edit of the fart scene adding a number of reaction memes and sound effects to the footage implying Nate is sus for what he's doing, gaining over 13,000 views in a week (shown below).

On January 23rd, YouTuber Moviesonic uploaded a video titled "Big Nate is sus" using the beaker scene and a Law & Order SVU title card to imply that Big Nate is about to commit a crime against another student, gaining over 111,000 views in a week (shown below).

On January 28th, YouTuber Dogato playz reposted a scene from Big Nate where he tries to trick a dog into drinking milk from a series of bottles strapped to his belly, titled "Big Nate is mad sus 😳," gaining over 510,000 views in four days (shown below, left). On January 30th, YouTuber IsaacIsSlow posted a version of the fart prank scene adding a more aggressive fart sound effect, gaining over 457,000 views in two days (shown below, right).

On the same day, YouTuber Frickin Beast uploaded an edit mashing the fart scene up with The Rock's It's About Drive, It's About Power rap verse, gaining over 210,000 views in two days (shown below).

On the same day, two memes using a scene from the series where Big Nate's dad sings "the buttcheeks song" to Nate to help him sleep were also posted to YouTube, gaining over 447,000 and 190,000 views in a day (shown below, left and right respectively). On February 1st, 2022, Lessons In Meme Culture posted a video about the meme to YouTube.^[1]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References