WW3 Trailer

Submission 8,161

Part of a series on World War III. [View Related Entries]

About

WW3 Trailer, also known as World War III Trailer, WWIII Trailer or World War Three Trailer, refers to a series of cartoon animations showing the U.S., China and Russia and their leaders, Joe Biden, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, getting into comical conflicts related to an imagined World War III, such as a Chinese spy balloon flying over the Statue of Liberty in New York City, among others. What were dubbed the "WW3 trailers" in memes on TikTok and YouTube were originally made by the Indian YouTube channel So Sorry (also known as SoSorry) which was a "Politoons" series made by India Today in early 2023. Also, many of the WW3 Trailer videos used the Chinese meme song "Red Sun in the Sky."

Origin

On February 19th, 2023, the Indian YouTube^[1] channel So Sorry uploaded a video titled, "China Hai Ki Manta Nahi," which was a political cartoon animation about the then-recent Chinese spy balloon hovering over the United States. The roughly 2-minute-long video started with the spy balloon flying over the Statue of Liberty in New York City and then outside the window of Joe Biden's office. The video ended with multiple China-themed balloons hovering around Biden, including one in the shape of Xi Jinping and others in the shape of the Coronavirus. Over the course of three months, the video gained roughly 346,300 views and 15,000 likes (shown below).

On March 17th, 2023, TikToker^[2] @opa_gangsta_style_ posted a sped-up version of So Sorry's animation with a text overlay reading "ww3 trailer." The video also used an earrape version of the Chinese meme song "Red Sun in the Sky." Over the course of two months, the video gained roughly 5.5 million plays and 575,300 likes (shown below).

Spread

On March 29th, 2023, TikToker^[2] @opa_gangsta_style_'s video was reposted to YouTube,^[3] where it gained roughly 7.1 million views and 497,000 likes in two months. Going into April 2023, similar videos that labeled So Sorry's animation as a "WW3 trailer" surfaced on TikTok,^[4] including ones that labeled the trailer as "goofy ahh." TikTokers then started using different animations from So Sorry, labeling them as "WW3 Trailer 2," "WW3 Trailer 3" and so on. For instance, on April 10th, 2023, TikToker^[5] @thedumbasian2 uploaded a "ww3 trailer part 2" video that used a Putin-related animation from So Sorry's YouTube^[6] channel called "Putin's Train Burning Ukraine," gaining roughly 18,300 plays and 800 likes in one month (shown below).

Going into May 2023, the concept continued to gain virality on YouTube and TikTok through various similar renditions of the original meme. For instance, on May 3rd, 2023, YouTuber^[7] Philippinia posted a video called "WW3 Trailer (official)" which received roughly 796,700 views and 40,000 likes in one week (shown below).