Editor's Note: This entry contains minor spoilers for season 5 of Stranger Things; read at your own caution.

About

Mr. Whatsit? also known as Are You by Chance Looking for Mr. Whatsit? refers to a scene from season 5 of Stranger Things that sparked a series of video edit memes on TikTok in late 2025. In the scene, the character Mike Wheeler, played by actor Finn Wolfhard, says, "Are you by chance looking for Mr. Whatsit?" to a little girl, when he and Will Byers, played by Noah Schnapp, are tooling with a "plumbing problem." The scene was turned into Hopecore edits and honored in Accuracy Reenactments on TikTok.

Origin

On November 26th, 2025, the first four episodes of season 5 of Stranger Things were released for streaming on Netflix. In episode 4, titled "Sorcerer," there is one scene in which the characters Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Derek Turnbow and Lucas Sinclair attempt to break out children from a government facility who can see Mr. Whatsit, Holly Wheeler's imaginary friend and a manifestation of the antagonist Vecna.^[1]

In the scene, Mike and Will are crouched next to a burst water pipe in the bathroom as children, sent in by Derek, see them and another kid peeking out of the hole in a stall. They ask two girls iterations of, "Are you by chance looking for Mr. Whatsit?" The second girl was not supposed to see them and alerts the soldiers of their presence.^[1]

On November 28th, TikToker^[2] @allison_risner20 posted a video of herself watching the scene with a text overlay caption, reading, "This scene was so funny." Over three days, the video gained over 306,100 likes.

Spread

On November 28th, 2025, memetic use of the "Mr. Whatsit?" scene surfaced on TikTok. For instance, on that day, TikToker^[3] @anxcae shared a stylized video edit of the scene, gaining over 463,200 likes in three days.

On November 29th, TikToker^[4] @tobiax.1.max shared a video edit meme that added Vine Thud sound effects to the scene, gaining over 562,900 likes in two days.

The abovementioned TikTok^[4] video also included a variation of the SYBAU Picture meme, in which Will and Mike were edited in with "Mr. Whatsit?" added as the image macro's text caption.

Also on November 29th, 2025, TikToker^[5] @phil.ming.videos shared an Accuracy Reenactment of the "Mr. Whatsit?" scene, using the Pull Up Stuntin' sound. Over two days, the video gained roughly 305,200 likes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References