Slow Fade-In Irony

Submission 3,966

Part of a series on Hood Irony. [View Related Entries]

About

Slow Fade-In Irony refers to a series of meme videos (mostly on TikTok) in which a meme with a top-white caption slowly fades in from black, commonly set to the rap songs and TikTok sounds known as The Money Go Where I Go and Turn Down For What. The trend (akin to Hood Irony) started in early 2024 with a series of Duke Dennis memes that used a slowed remix of the DaBaby son "BOP." Going into the year, the trend evolved using other image macros like Kevin Hart Reaction Images and the Staring Freddy Fazbear Drawing. Other trends that followed the "Slow Fade-In Irony" format are When the Video Is So Fire You Gotta Send It to X and When the Video's So Relatable You Gotta Do the Ultimate Combo.

Origin

Currently, the first known creator of Slow Fade-In Irony is TikToker @oneheart_real. On January 20th, 2024, the TikToker^[1] posted their first Slow Fade-In Irony meme. The video slowly faded in a meme from black, reading in a top-white caption "when the fit is fire but your face ruins it" over an image of the character Wingman from Fortnite. In two months, the video received roughly 789,200 plays and 162,200 likes (shown below).

Spread

Going into late January 2024, @oneheart_real continued to post viral TikToks that followed the Slow Fade-In Irony format. For instance, on January 24th, 2024, TikToker^[2] @oneheart_real posted a video that showed a Call of Duty image with a top caption reading, "me staring at the dry response feeling like I'm forcing them to talk to me," receiving over 3.5 million plays and 702,800 likes in two months (shown below, left).

On January 28th, 2024, TikToker^[3] @oneheart_real posted a video that started the Duke Dennis Fade-In trend, showing a meme with the streamer reading, "can't sleep at night, can't wake up in the morning," earning over 2 million plays and 371,300 likes in two months (shown below, right).

The trend evolved as others posted videos following the format, using different image macros and different songs. For instance, on January 26th, 2024, TikToker^[4] @seaniscool4 posted a video that slowly faded in an mene with Mr. Burns from The Simpsons reading, "When the bell rings but yo dingaling lowkey hard asl," gaining over 347,300 likes in one month (shown below, left).

On January 30th, 2024, TikToker^[5] @squidsgeoguessr posted a version with the Staring Freddy Fazbear Drawing, gaining over 1.8 million plays and 373,800 likes in one month (shown below, right).

Hello Bro / Hello Vro

Hello Bro and Hello Vro, often written in copy-paste cursive with a heart emoji like 𝓗𝓮𝓵𝓵𝓸 𝓑𝓻𝓸 ❤️ and 𝓗𝓮𝓵𝓵𝓸 𝓥𝓻𝓸 ❤️, are catchphrases used in a series of a Papyrus Irony memes common on Instagram and TikTok, showing a cute animal (like a cat or dog) wholesomely saying, "Hello bro" or "Hello vro" (as in the XXXTentacion affiliated slang variation of "bro"). The most popular versions of the meme use a red ball saying "Hello bro" and SpongeBob saying the phrase. The meme started on Twitter / X and Instagram in late 2023, eventually gaining variations under the Slow Fade-In Irony umbrella (examples shown below).