What’s a Good Male Acting Performance Where He is X

Submission 1,406

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About

What’s a Good Male Acting Performance Where He is X refers to a phrasal template used on Twitter that's about male actors and the clichés associated with their performances being perceived as "good" by critics and audiences. The meme trend started in January 2023 when one Twitter user wrote, "What's a good male acting performance where he isn't yelling," inspiring many satirical and humorous quote retweets and replies that included videos of male actors screaming.

Origin

On January 11th, 2023, Twitter^[1] user WrittenByHanna tweeted, "What's a good male acting performance where he isn't yelling," gaining roughly 29,700 likes in 16 days (shown below).

Spread

The tweet received many, earnest replies from Twitter users who shared movie and TV scenes with male actors not screaming. For instance, Twitter^[2] user marvelbimbo replied on January 11th with a GIF of actor Ke Huay Quan in the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, gaining roughly 11,200 likes in 16 days. Also on January 11th, Twitter^[3] user WhoIsMozart replied with a video of actor Jeremy Allen White as Carmy in The Bear, gaining roughly 2,100 likes in the same time frame.

Soon after, satirical rebuttals of WrittenByHanna's tweet surfaced via quote retweets. One of the first known was posted by Twitter^[4] user geraldd_tv on January 14th, 2023, who quote retweeted WrittenByHanna's tweet with a the "Seymour, I made you a sandwich" viral video from Devon Palmer,^[5] gaining roughly 10,600 likes in 13 days (shown below).

On January 20th, 2023, Twitter^[6] user guymrdth posted a tweet (since-deleted) that read, "what’s a good male acting performance where he is yelling?" gaining roughly 5,700 likes in six days (shown below).

The aforementioned tweet received many quote retweets and replies before its deletion, such as one reply from Twitter^[7] user kevlarkungen on January 23rd, 2023, that showed TikToker^[8] benfarmer9417 arguing about a "wicked witch of the west" related topic, gaining roughly 19,400 likes in four days (shown below).

As the tweet and its QTs went viral in late January 2023, viral remixes of the phrasal template surfaced that replaced the last part of the sentence. For instance, on January 24th, 2023, Twitter^[9] user joblessthursday tweeted, "what's a good male acting performance where he's covered in oil naked and grinding his hips against another person or surface," gaining roughly 7,800 likes in three days (shown below).