Leon Kennedy Dramatically Falling

About

Leon Kennedy Dramatically Falling refers to a cutscene from the 2005 video game Resident Evil 4 in which the character Leon Kennedy passes out in a dramatic fashion following an exhausting boss battle. Starting in May 2022, the scene, often paired with the sound of a person moaning, gained virality in video and GIF caption memes.

Origin

On January 11th, 2005, the survival horror video game Resident Evil 4 was released. In chapter 1-3 of the game, the main protagonist Leon Kennedy fights Del Lago (the first boss) in a lake.^[1] After defeating the boss, Leon climbs ashore, passing out from the exhausting battle (cutscene starts at the 6:05 mark, shown below).

On May 5th, 2022, TikToker^[2] adwgrf paired the GIF with the slowed-down soundbite of streamer Yungllama moaning, captioned with a joke about people named David. The post (shown below) gained over 450,000 views and 42,100 likes in one year.

Spread

In the following months, the clip, usually paired with the sound effect, was used in more video caption memes on TikTok (examples shown below).^[3][4]

Prior to July 2nd, 2022, a meme using the clip appeared in a meme compilation video by YouTuber Izux Senpai. On July 2nd, YouTuber^[5] Fermín2004 posted the cropped clip to the platform, where it gained over 404,000 views in eight months (shown below).

The meme format saw continued use on TikTok, iFunny and other sites throughout late 2022 and 2023. For example, on August 14th, 2022, TikToker^[6] pamwammer posted a meme that received over 394,000 views and 61,700 likes in seven months (shown below, left). On March 3rd, 2023, TikToker^[7] ryleedelrey posted a meme that accumulated over 351,000 views and 77,300 likes in one month (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References