Donnie Darko's "I Made a New Friend"

Submission 17,231

About

I Made a New Friend refers to a scene from the 2001 film Donnie Darko in which the main protagonist Donnie Darko tells his psychiatrist Dr. Thurman that he made a new friend, and admits that it is imaginary. In July and August 2020, a three-panel format based on the scene gained popularity following a viral Animal Crossing meme.

Origin

On October 26th, 2001, science fiction psychological thriller Donnie Darko premiered in the United States.^[1] In one scene of the film, the main protagonist Donnie Darko tells his psychiatrist Dr. Thurman about his recent acquaintance Frank, a man wearing a bunny suit who has been manifesting himself near Donnie over the past several days. When asked if his new friend is imaginary, Darko confirms it.

Spread

On May 6th, 2015, Tumblr^[2] user anamorphosis-and-isolate posted a three-panel image based on the scene, with the post gaining over 1,400 likes and reblogs in five years (shown below, left). Another three-panel image macro using a different layout was posted by an unknown user in the following years (shown below, right).

On July 23rd, 2020, Facebook^[8] user Melissa Boykiw posted an Animal Crossing meme based on the three-panel image. The altered caption replaced "imaginary" with "Animal Crossing villager." The post received over 11,000 reactions and 1,700 shares in three months.

On the same day, Redditor^[3] TunafishSandworm reposted the meme, with the post gaining over 3,200 upvotes in /r/animalcrossing in three months.

The format did not see further spread until on August 17th, 2020, the official Facebook^[4] page for Amazon Prime Video posted the three-panel meme, with the post gaining over 258,000 and 54,000 shares.

Following the post, memes in which the phrase was humorously altered gained popularity online, particularly on Facebook. For example, on August 28th, Facebook^[5] page Non-binary memes for Marxist teens posted a meme which received over 130 likes and 17 shares. A Reddit^[6] repost of the meme received over 300 upvotes in one month. A meme posted by Instagram^[7] page planty_hoes on August 30th garnered over 15,300 likes in one month.