Breaking Bad If Skyler Didn't Exist / If Hank Didn't Shit That Day

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About

Breaking Bad If Skyler Didn't Exist and Breaking Bad If Hank Didn't Shit That Day are a series of memes that imagine different endings for the crime drama series Breaking Bad if certain events didn't happen or certain characters, namely Skyler White, didn't exist. The memes often utilize a 2014 comedy sketch featuring Breaking Bad actors Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul and the sped-up version of the song "Messages from the Stars" by RAH Band.

Origin

The clip of actors Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, who portray Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in the crime drama series Breaking Bad comes from a 2014 Emmy Prime Time Awards promo sketch about two sleazy pawn shop owners (shown below, left).^[1] The song used in the clips is a sped-up version of the 1983 song "Messaged from the Stars" by RAH Band (shown below, right).^[2]

On May 2nd, TikTok^[3] user @cinemaknowledge posted a video caption meme which combined the caption "Breaking Bad if Hank had pissed that day instead of shitting," which references a key plot element from Breaking Bad and represents Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul as two pawn shop owners showing off their success. The video, attributed to TikTok user @the_fu8kfr8a4, gained over 3 million views and 364,000 likes in five months (shown below).

Spread

The post was followed by more video caption memes, initially on TikTok and later on YouTube. For example, on May 5th, 2022, TikTok^[4] user @mrdragonnl posted a video caption meme imagining Breaking Bad if Skyler White drowned in the pool. The video (shown below, left) gained over 2.2 million views and 323,000 likes in five months. On May 9th, TikTok^[5] user @idontcareneverasked posted a meme that accumulated over 96,000 views and 10,000 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

The video caption format again gained popularity in July 2022. For example, on July 9th and 10th, TikToker^[6]^[7] @.grantelio posted two video caption Breaking Bad If… memes that gained over 8.9 million views and 1.7 million views in three months (shown below, left and right).

The videos were followed by more similar memes on TikTok and YouTube. On October 8th, 2022, Twitter^[8] user @ExtremeBlitz_ posted a Guitar Hero World Tour: Definitive Edition which received over 4.1 million views, 26,800 retweets and 217,000 likes in three days (shown below).