Michael Cera as Allan (Barbie)

About

Michael Cera as Allan refers to actor Michael Cera's role as Allan in the 2023 Barbie movie. His appearance as the character in the Barbie movie trailer gained traction as an image macro on Twitter in April 2023, leading to multiple captions paired with the image across social media. Interest also peaked as to who Allan was in the original Barbie universe, specifically in relation to Allan being marketed as "Ken's Buddy" and that "All of Ken’s Clothes Fit Him." The taglines led to speculation that Allan was Ken's secret, gay lover and boyfriend, sparking curiosity about how Cera as Allan and Ryan Gosling as Ken would be in the movie. Fan edits also surfaced on TikTok following the reveal of Cera's character.

Origin

On April 4th, 2023, Warner Bros. Pictures uploaded the second teaser trailer for Barbie (2023) on YouTube,^[1] gaining roughly 13 million views and 171,000 likes in three days. The trailer also went viral when it was posted to Twitter^[2] by the official @barbiethemovie account, gaining roughly 7 million views and 191,700 likes in three days. At the trailer's 1:30-minute mark, Michael Cera as the character Allan was shown for the first time, wearing a striped shirt with rainbow colors (shown below).

Also on April 4th, the Twitter^[3] account @barbiethemovie shared a Barbie Movie Poster of Michael Cera as Allan, gaining roughly 21,700 likes in three days (shown below, left). After the trailer was posted to Twitter at 12 p.m. EST on April 4th, at approximately 12:03 p.m. EST on the same day, a screencap of Michael Cera as Allan was shared by the film-centric Twitter^[4] account @DiscussingFilm, gaining roughly 22,200 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Spread

Following @DiscussingFilm's sharing of the screencap, memetic usage of the frame continued on April 4th, 2023. For instance, on April 4th, Twitter^[5] user @zachsilberberg tweeted the Allan frame with the caption, "the hottest girl you know is going to tweet this picture and say 'need him,'" gaining roughly 286,900 likes in three days (shown below, left). Also on April 4th, Twitter^[6] user @amadcartoonist tweeted a retro, product image of the Allan Barbie, highlighting the "He’s Ken’s buddy" and "All of Ken’s clothes fit him!" taglines. The tweet gained roughly 95,700 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Others online reposted screenshots of @zachsilberberg's tweet^[5] to Instagram, such as a post from the Instagram^[7] page @jokezar on April 5th, 2023, which gained roughly 24,000 likes in two days.

In the days that followed, humorous criticism of the Barbie trailer-inspired memes surfaced online. For instance, on April 6th, 2023, Twitter^[8] user @laserboat999 posted a tweet with the frame, proclaiming that it was a "bleak time" for Twitter in that, "You can post any picture from the barbie movie with any caption you want and people will slurp it up. You can say 'Just bought fentanyl from this guy….'" The tweet gained roughly 7,500 likes in one day (shown below, left). Three minutes after @laserboat999's tweet, Twitter^[9] user @lunch_enjoyer humorously fulfilled @laserboat999's statement, captioning the image, "just bought fentanyl from this guy," and earning roughly 26,800 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Fancam type content also surfaced and went viral on TikTok using Michael Cera as Allan. For instance, on April 6th, 2023, TikToker^[10] @bluth.co.intern posted a "Promise That You'll Never Find Another Like Me" edit using Cera'a Allan, earning roughly 1.1 million plays and 277,000 likes in one day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References