Giant Skeleton Trampling a City

About

Giant Skeleton Trampling a City is a viral video and 3D animation by artist Alex Howard that depicts a giant skeleton walking through a populated area at night, sending shockwaves as he steps, with the scene observed as if it was from a passenger aircraft. A repost of the video from 2022 with the caption "wyd in this situation?" spawned a trend on X / Twitter in which users replied with their possible reactions, often humorously unrelated to the imagined situation.

Origin

On March 1st, 2022, digital artist Alex Howard, also known for his Siren Head animation, posted a 3D animated video of a gigantic skeleton creature walking through an unnamed town in Nevada, his steps sending shockwaves through the populated area as it walks. The video received over 31 million views on YouTube,^[1] 77,000 likes on Instagram^[2] and 2,200 reposts and 13,000 likes on X^[3] in three years (YouTube upload shown below).

On March 20th, 2022, X^[4] user @shukran___ reposted the video with the caption, "wyd in this situation?" The post (shown below) received over 72,000 reposts and 223,000 likes in three years.

Spread

The video achieved initial traction on X / Twitter as users quoted the post with humorous captions. On March 21st, 2022, X^[5] user @mercutihoe captioned the post, "streaming lana del rey," gaining over 200 reposts and 2,000 likes in three years. Later on March 21st, X^[6] user @nag_dadabog captioned the post, "mental health webinar." The post (shown below) gained over 1,400 reposts and 11,000 likes in three years.

Following a brief period of popularity in March 2022, the meme did not see further spread until late October 2024. On October 31st, 2024, X^[7] user @netcapgirl captioned the post with a corporate jargon joke. The post (shown below) received over 3,800 reposts and 50,000 likes in three weeks.

On November 18th, 2024, X^[8] user @cfree94 made a similar joke, with their post (shown below) garnering over 24,000 reposts and 272,000 likes in two days.

The post was followed by the trend experiencing a surge in popularity on X / Twitter in mid-November 2024.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References