Charlie Kirk Smile

Submission 4,316

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About

The Charlie Kirk Smile, also known as Charlie Kirk Smiling, refers to the smile of right-wing conservative pundit Charlie Kirk, which many internet users have said is "creepy" and "ugly," among other sentiments. Kirk's smile is noticeably gummy and is often perceived as having small teeth compared to his mouth. Photos and videos of Kirk's smile went viral on social media in the early 2020s. For instance, a photo (originally taken in 2017) of him with Kellyanne Conway went viral in 2023 in which he's wearing a tuxedo and smiling at the camera. In September 2024, Charlie Kirk's appearance as a guest on the Jubilee YouTube channel inspired memes about his smile after a Black female contestant named Naima Troutt (TikToker @hair.soup) said, "His smile is very creepy," after Kirk smiled at her following his claim that fetus meant, "Little human being," in Latin. Many TikTok users made fancam edits of Naima who also told Kirk, "No, your smile specifically," after he asked her, "Smiling is creepy?"

Origin

On January 17th, 2017, Charlie Kirk posted a photo to Twitter / X^[1] showing himself with political consultant and pollster Kellyanne Conway after former President Donald Trump's inauguration. He captioned the image, "With the woman who saved western civilization," receiving over 1,400 likes in seven years (shown below).

On July 26th, 2020, Kirk was a guest on Fox News in a segment on rioters in Portland, Oregon during protests concerning the Death of George Floyd. At the segment's end (shown below), Kirk is seen smiling, laughing and rolling his eyes after making a joke about the other guest wanting his hair.^[2]

Although the photo with Kellyanne Conway predates the Fox News appearance, the Fox News appearance received meme attention first. For instance, the earliest known viral post using an image of Charlie Kirk smiling was shared by X^[3] user @NotHoodlum on November 17th, 2020, captioned, "Have Charlie Kirk’s Gums conceded yet?" gaining over 1,700 likes in four years (shown below).

Another possible source for the meme attention about Charlie Kirk's smile from his July 2020 Fox News appearance is an Instagram Story that was posted by since-deleted Instagram user @jacobawohl who recorded his TV screen, showing the close-up of Kirk's smiling face and expressions. The Instagram Story with @jacobawohl's username in the top corner was used in later memes on TikTok^[4] and elsewhere.

Spread

Going into the 2020s, memes about Charlie Kirk's smile surfaced across social media platforms. For instance, on January 21st, 2023, X^[5] user @JarJarFan69 tweeted the photo of Kirk and Conway with no caption, gaining over 2,000 likes in a year.

Later on the same day, X^[6]^[7] user @cooIboobs tweeted the image, captioning it, "this is unedited." The tweet received over 27,900 likes in two days (shown below). It was later deleted.

On January 22nd, X^[8] user @TeahLhompson tweeted the photo of Kirk and Conway, captioning it, "I genuinely think this image could stop the heart of someone on shrooms," receiving over 107,000 likes in a year (shown below).

The abovementioned posts made users reply to Kirk's original tweet^[1] and mock him starting on January 21st, 2023.

Memes and posts making fun of Charlie Kirk's smile resurfaced en masse in September 2024, following Kirk's appearance in Jubilee's "Can 25 Liberal College Students Outsmart 1 Conservative?" YouTube^[9] video, which was uploaded on September September 8th.

On September 10th, 2024, Jubilee uploaded a clip from the video to TikTok^[10] in which Kirk debated a girl named Naima over abortion rights. At one point in the clip, Kirk claims that "fetus" means "little human being" in Latin. Then, he smiles at Naima, making her say, "Ew, his smile is very creepy." The TikTok video received over 56.4 million plays and 5.6 million likes in 10 days (shown below).

In the following days, TikTokers posted memes that mocked Kirk's smile in the video, such as TikToker^[11] @tmtongaa on September 11th, 2024, who used the clip and drew Charlie Kirk's smile on paper, receiving over 3.9 million plays and 775,500 likes in nine days (shown below).

The clip also went viral when it was reposted by X^[12] user @beyoncegarden on September 18th, 2024, gaining over 234,000 likes in five days.

On September 19th, X^[13] user @grillpill_ quoted the aforementioned post, attaching two screencaps of Kirk and Naima, captioned, "He's such a disgusting creature," earning over 319,000 likes in four days (shown below).

On September 22nd, 2024, YouTuber and artist MeatCanyon posted a drawing of Kirk's smile to X,^[14] captioning it, "I did the thing." In a day, the meme received over 492,000 likes (shown below).