Meena the Elephant Hate

About

Meena the Elephant Hate or Meena Is Extra refers to a series of memes where fans of the movie Sing express hatred for the character Meena for being annoying and extra, particularly for a scene where she sings "Happy Birthday" to her grandfather in an overly passionate way, taking all the attention from him. Meena the elephant slander became popularized on TikTok in early 2022 shortly after the release of Sing 2, inspiring a viral original sound consisting of her singing "Happy Birthday."

Origin

On December 21st, 2016, the animated musical Sing was released in North America. The elephant character Meena,^[1] a shy elephant, is introduced in a scene where she brings a cake to her grandfather on his birthday as the family sings "Happy Birthday" to him. Meena joins in, singing the song in a professional manner that makes everyone pay attention. She then gets shy realizing everyone is watching her, but her grandfather praises her voice (shown below). On December 22nd, 2021, Sing 2 was released, also featuring the character.

On January 17th, 2022, TikToker^[2] @randyfanboy posted the clip of Meena singing "Happy Birthday" with a caption describing their hatred for the character, writing, "NO BECAUSE SHE WAS MAD EXTRA FOR SINGING HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIKE THAT LIKE SHUT UP ITS LITERALLY JUST A BIRTHDAY SONG," gaining over 3.4 million views in a week (shown below).

Spread

TikTokers continued to slander and hate Meena over the following days for similar reasons, using the original sound for @randyfanboy's video. For example, on January 18th, 2022, TikToker @ok.jae_ posted a skit where he and two women at the table laugh with embarrassment as Meena sings the song, gaining over 4.2 million views in six days (shown below).

On January 21st, TikTokers @emobobblehat and @mewothsher posted slideshows of Meena with long-form text overtop describing their hatred for Meena for being annoying and extra, gaining over 1.6 million and 2.6 million views, respectively, in three days (shown below, left and right).

On January 20th, TikToker @dillydingdong3 posted a POV skit where he plays the grandfather cringing at Meena singing to him, using an age filter, gaining over 3.8 million views in four days (shown below, left). On January 21st, TikToker @amanihiphop posted a similar video, gaining over 6.5 million views in three days (shown below, right).

On January 22nd, 2022, Meena's voice actor, Tori Kelly, duetted @ dillydingdong3's video, lip dubbing along, gaining over 2 million views in two days (shown below). On January 23rd, Twitter^[3] user @edrics_bf posted a collection of screenshots from TikTok hating on Meena, gaining over 1,000 likes and 200 retweets in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References