Devious Bruno / Hoes On Me Left and Right

Submission 821

Part of a series on We Don't Talk About Bruno. [View Related Entries]

About

Devious Bruno / Hoes On Me Left and Right refers to a video meme template that uses the "We Don't Talk About Bruno" scene from the animated movie Encanto, which compares the character Bruno Madrigal looking devious in a green hood to the characters Pepa and Félix who are singing, dancing and being happy. Meme creators object labeled the two, associating Pepa and Félix with an innocent thought or action and Bruno with a disrupting and less-innocent counteraction. Also in the meme format, the song "Left Right" by BKTHERULA played. The trend became notable on TikTok in early 2023 when a CapCut template used the scene and spread online.

Origin

The animated Disney movie Encanto was released in American theaters on November 24th, 2021.^[1] One of the movie's songs was called "We Don't Talk About Bruno" and portrayed the Madrigal family, most of whom have superpowers, singing about their estranged relative Bruno. The song was uploaded to YouTube^[2] on December 29th, 2021, via the official DisneyMusicVEVO account, earning roughly 531.1 million views and 4.2 million likes in a year and a half. At the 0:20-minute mark, the characters Pepa and Félix are seen dancing, singing and embracing each other as the camera pans to a green-hooded Bruno touching his fingers together mischievously (shown below).

Starting in late 2021, meme creators started to use the image of Bruno looking devious. For instance, the first discovered meme to use the image was posted by Redditor Pug-creature to the /r/Encanto^[3] subreddit on December 19th, 2021, who added a voiceover of "I am inside your walls," and gained over 30 upvotes in a year and a half. Other memes surfaced in early 2022, such as a Trade Offer meme posted by Tumblr^[4] user fragcc on January 13th, 2022, that gained roughly 32,100 notes in one year (shown below).

Hoes On Me Left And Right

Starting in early 2023, meme creators on TikTok started to pair the song "Left Right" by BKTHERULA^[5] (which has the primary lyrics "Hoes on me, left and right") with the clip from "We Don't Talk About Bruno" in which the camera pans from Pepa and Félix to a hooded Bruno. The template's first known usage was uploaded on March 14th, 2023, by TikToker^[6] @drethepeoplewhoknow who object labeled Pepa and Félix with "Me enjoying school:" and Bruno with "ELA: 💀" in reference to the standardized test. The video gained roughly 3 million plays and 466,900 likes in one month (shown below).

Spread

After @drethepeoplewhoknow's use of the CapCut template, the trend spread and was used by other TikTokers. For instance, on March 16th, 2023, TikToker^[7] @fw.zwatt posted a Ronaldo and Messi related meme, earning roughly 1.2 million plays and 169,200 likes in three weeks (shown below, left). On March 20th, 2023, TikToker^[8] @lovelanderz posted an iteration about a guy who brings Zaza to a party, earning roughly 7.6 million plays and 1.3 million likes in 18 days (shown below, right).

Going into April 2023, the template saw increased usage on TikTok.^[9]^[10]