The Exact Moment Walter White Became Heisenberg

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About

The Exact Moment Walter White Became Heisenberg is a cliché statement made by Breaking Bad fans regarding the moments in the series during which the main protagonist Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, supposedly "broke bad" and finally became his criminal alter ego Heisenberg. Despite the general consensus that the transition happened over the course of many events and not any singular moment, the statement was consistently brought up in Breaking Bad-related discussions, leading to a parody trend starting in 2019. The phrase also spawned the "The Exact Moment X Became Y" phrasal template used for memes with characters from other series and in YouTube comments.

Origin

The discussions pertaining to the full transformation of Walter White, the protagonist of the Breaking Bad criminal drama series_, into his criminal alter ego Heisenberg, started at least as early as the premiere of season five of the series. On September 9th, 2012, a week following the release of episode eight of season five, Redditor^[1] Gruzzly posted the question in the /r/breakingbad subreddit, where it gained over 20 upvotes in 10 years (shown below). Throughout the 2010s, the question was discussed by Breaking Bad fans multiple times on various platforms. For example, on December 28th, 2016, Neogaf^[2] user HStallion created an identical discussion that gained over 270 replies in roughly six years (shown below, right).

Several scenes are often brought up as possible answers, including the scene in which Walter White watches Jesse Pinkman's girlfriend Jane choke to death instead of helping her^[3] and the scene in which he threatens two meth dealers into avoiding his "territory." On October 25th, 2018, YouTuber^[4] SwoonedHeart uploaded the latter scene to YouTube with the title "The moment when Mr. White becomes Heisenberg." The video (shown below) gained over 172,000 views in four years.

In the late 2010s, the cliché became a running gag in the /r/breakingbad subreddit as users commented it under posts about light-hearted scenes from the series and altered the phrase. For example, on March 14th, 2019, Redditor^[5] dennyblah commented, "This is the moment OP truly became Heisenberg." on a popular post, with the comment gaining over 580 upvotes in roughly three years (shown below, left). The joke achieved viral status in the subreddit on March 25th, 2019, when Redditor^[6] Jwick2002 made the comment on another prominent post, with Redditor^[7] mavi_the_man suggesting making a subreddit for the meme and Redditor^[8] timothy_green launching the /r/WaltBecomesHeisenberg^[9] subreddit (exchange shown below, right).

Spread

In late March 2019, the joke went viral in the /r/breakingbad subreddit as users posted memes based on it, with more posts getting submitted to /r/WaltBecomeHeisenberge. For example, on March 31st, 2019, Redditor avegned_llama posted a meme that gained over 2,100 upvotes in /r/breakingbad^[10] in three years (shown below, left). On April 6th, Redditor sgumberts1 posted a meme that gained over 2,400 upvotes in the subreddit in the same period^[11] (shown below, right).

Following the period of initial virality in the /r/breakingbad subreddit, the joke spread to other communities, primarily fandoms of other popular series, as users adopted the "The Exact Moment When X Became Y" snowclone. For example, on May 7th, 2019, Redditor^[12] captainbignips posted a Game of Thrones version of the meme that gained over 40 upvotes in the /r/freefolk subreddit in three years (shown below, left). On July 21st, 2021, the Facebook^[13] page Socialist Sopranos Memes posted a Sopranos version of the meme that gained over 620 reactions and 60 shares in one year (shown below, right).

The snowclone has also been used as a title for various Breaking Bad clips,^[14]^[15] while the snowclone has gained significant presence in YouTube comments.

Vince Gilligan's Opinion

In an August 2013 interview, series creator Vince Gilligan named the ending scene of episode five "Gray Matter" of season one of the series in which Walter White refuses to accept Gretchen and Elliot's money and instead offers Jesse to resume their partnership as the moment Walter White "broke bad."