Chef Slowik Whispering to Tyler

About

Chef Slowik Whispering to Tyler refers to an image macro from the 2022 movie The Menu in which the character Chef Julian Slowik (played by Ralph Fiennes) is whispering to the character Tyler (played by Nicholas Hoult) causing him to cry and become emotional. What Slowik whispered to Tyler in the movie was something related to his bad cooking skills despite being a self-proclaimed "foodie." Meme creators on Twitter paired the image macro with captions that levied similar criticisms to the meme's subject's hypocrisy or captions that highlighted discomforting utterances said to them in the past.

Origin

On November 18th, 2022, the movie The Menu released in American theaters,^[1] directed by Mark Mylod and starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult and Ralph Fiennes, among others. In one scene in the movie, Nicholas Hoult's character Tyler is approached by Ralph Fiennes' character Chef Julian Slowik who whispers in Tyler's ear something presumably damaging about Tyler's cooking skills despite Tyler insisting that he is a "foodie."

On November 17th, 2022, news outlets like The Seattle Times^[2] posted articles about the The Menu and used the screencap of Chef Slowik whispering to Tyler, provided to them by Searchlight Pictures (shown below).

On November 26th, 2022, Twitter^[3] user billybobtexas first used the still image in a reply that received minimal likes. On January 4th, 2023, the Twitter^[4] account of Decider used a cropped and brightened version of the screencap for a tweet which later became the predominant meme template. Currently, the first known meme to use the image was posted by Twitter^[5] user Steph_I_Will on January 24th, 2023, who captioned it, "'You create it then.'" The tweet received roughly 2,300 likes in 15 days (shown below).

Spread

On January 25th, 2023, Twitter^[6] user Jfcdoomblade tweeted reply that used the image, captioning it "'Alright, why don't you do a Shakespeare monologue for me then,'" and earning roughly 3,400 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). Going into February 2023, the image macro was used more frequently and received more engagement. For instance, on January 28th, 2023, Twitter^[7] user bluepantheress quote retweeted "wheres a good acting performance where a man is so pathetic its almost embarrassing to watch" with the image, earning roughly 260,000 likes in 11 days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References