Gaston

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About

Gaston is the primary antagonist in the 1991 Disney animated musical fantasy film Beauty and the Beast, who is known for being an arrogant, male chauvinist and egotistical hunter. Online, he has appeared in numerous remix and YouTube poop videos, most notably featuring a scene in which local villagers sing the song "Gaston" in praise of the character.

Origin

On November 22nd, 1991, Beauty and the Beast was released at theaters within the United States. In the film, the character Gaston is introduced as a town hero and accomplished hunter, who becomes a ruthless traitor after being rejected by the protagonist Belle. In the film, Gaston's friends and local villagers sing the song "Gaston" to cheer him up after his marriage proposal is rejected by Belle (shown below).

Spread

On July 12th, 2008, an entry for the character was created on the Disney Wiki.^[2] On November 27th, YouTuber mrsimon uploaded a YouTube poop remix using the "Gaston" song scene (shown below, left). On June 26th, 2010, YouTuber EnigmaEvocative uploaded a remix of the "Gaston" song, which gathered upwards of 1.8 million views and 4,200 comments within seven years (shown below, right).

On October 30th, 2016, Redditor Lichzim submitted a post claiming that "Gaston memes" were "on the rise" to /r/MemeEconomy.^[3] On December 3rd, YouTuber Fresh Memes For Your Health uploaded a "Replacement Remix": titled "Gaston but all the rhymes are switched" (shown below, left). On January 5th, 2017, YouTuber Emilio The Burrito released a remix titled "Gaston, but every time someone says Gaston, he eats 4 dozen eggs" (shown below, right).

On January 11th, YouTuber Friendly Fingers posted an edited version of the video which speeds up by 5% with every mention of "Gaston" (shown below, left). The following day, Friendly Fingers uploaded another remix titled "Gaston but every time they say Gaston the frames trail even more" (shown below, right).

On March 17th, 2017, Smosh^[4] published a listicle titled "22 of Tumblr's Most Important Thoughts on Disney's Best Villain, Gaston." On March 22nd, the Observer^[1] published a PowerPoint presentation titled "Why Belle Should Have Chosen Gaston" by author Dana Schwartz, which contained a collection of slides arguing that Gaston would have been a better mate choice for Belle in the Disney film.

No One Like Gaston Phrasal Template

In the 1991 film Beauty and the Beast, the character Gaston performs a song entitled "Gaston." During the song, he repeatedly sings variations on the line "no one does [x], like Gaston."

[This video has been removed]

The song inspired a phrasal template in which people replace the things Gaston does with humorous and/or absurd activities. On September 4th, 2018, Twitter ^[6] user @readingtheend tweeted, "me: I need to buy new stamps so I'm not sending out condolence cards with Disney villain stamps on them friend: no one grieves like Gaston, acts bereaved like Gaston me: how are you doing this friend: no one orders ornate funeral wreaths like Gaston." The tweet (shown below, left) received more than 14,000 retweets and 67,000 likes in three days.

Following the tweet, more users began posting variations of the song (examples below, center and right).

On September 6th, Mashable ^[7] posted a listicle about the meme.

Gaston Reads X

Gaston Reads X is an exploitable screen-captured image of Gaston reading a book while Bella watches. While initially appearing in a Demotivational Poster on DeviantArt, photoshopped variations of the image subsequently circulated within various web communities online.

Tropical Storm Gaston

In late August 2016, the Tropical Storm Gaston began traveling across the Atlantic toward the United States East Coast, leading various Twitter users to post jokes about the storm personified as the Beauty and the Beast antagonist (shown below).^[5]