My Shayla

About

My Shayla refers to a viral video clip of actor Tyrese Gibson crying and saying, "Oh my god, my Shayla," concerning his daughter. The original video was called Crying Tyrese and it generated memes in 2017 when it was first posted to Gibson's Instagram amid his custody battle for his daughter Shayla. Stills and GIFs of Gibson crying and covering his mouth were used as reaction images on Twitter / X throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s. The specific clip of him emotionally saying, "My Shayla," went viral on TikTok in late 2024. Meme creators added text captions to the video or reenacted it, giving it new meaning and viral spread.

Origin

On November 1st, 2017, actor Tyrese Gibson posted a video to his Instagram about the ongoing custody battle for his 10-year-old daughter Shayla.^[1] The original video has since been deleted. It was first reposted by YouTuber^[2] Lailah Lynn Media on November 1st, gaining over 34,100 views in seven years. At the video's 2:35-minute mark (shown below), Gibson says, "Oh. my god, my Shayla."

Spread

After its 2017 upload, the video of Gibson crying received exploitable usage in a series of image macros shared on sites like Instagram and Reddit. Many centered on the catchphrase, "What more do you want from me?" (examples shown below).

Years later, on December 9th, 2024, TikToker^[3] @bunionlover47 shared the clip of Gibson saying, "Oh my god, my Shayla," with text overlay reading, "When my HG brings him up but he has been OTG for hours with his friends," gaining over 450,200 plays and 21,400 likes in a week (shown below).

Going into December 2024, others used the TikTok sound^[4] of the abovementioned video. For instance, on December 11th, TikToker^[5] @user35947136 shared a video with the sound, joking about seeing old photos of her siblings before they were "grumpy teenagers," amassing over 4.1 million plays and 795,700 likes in five days (shown below).

The My Shayla meme caused a resurgence of Crying Tyrese memes in late 2024. For instance, on December 10th, TikToker^[6] @analgorrilla shared the, "What more do you want from me?" clip, captioned, "When I don't turn in one missing assignment and watch my grade go from 90 to a 25," gaining over 217,600 plays and 65,000 likes in six days (shown below).

By December 16th, 2024, the trend's primary TikTok sound^[4] had amassed over 4,500 posts.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References