Memes dictionary
hello darkness, my old friend
What does hello darkness, my old friend mean?
Hello darkness, my old friend is a meme used to humorously express despair or existential angst. It is often used as an image caption or as a musical snippet played over a video.
Where does hello darkness, my old friend come from?
Hello darkness, my old friend is the first line of Simon and Garfunkel鈥檚 hit 1964 song, 鈥淭he Sounds of Silence.鈥� Paul Simon later described the song鈥檚 melancholy lyrics as stemming from 鈥測outhful alienation.鈥� A remixed version of the song鈥攖he version usually heard on TV, movies, and radio today鈥攔ose to the top of the Billboard charts in November 1965.
鈥淭he Sounds of Silence鈥� was used throughout the soundtrack of the 1967 movie The Graduate, most notably in the final scene, underpinning the protagonist Ben鈥檚 (Dustin Hoffman) slow-dawning realization his of emotional emptiness.
In its fourth season, the sitcom Arrested Development riffed on The Graduate鈥檚 use of 鈥淭he Sounds of Silence.鈥� On the show, the first line or two of the song, including its signature hello darkness, my old friend, frequently played as the character Gob Bluth (and occasionally characters) faced harrowing realizations or moments of despair. Google search interest for the phrase hello darkness, spiked around the same time the first of these episodes aired, in May 2013.
In 2014, a YouTube video surfaced dubbing a distraught Brazilian fan at the World Cup with the opening lines of 鈥渢he Sounds of Silence.鈥� Similar videos followed.
In February 2015, users on the online message board site Reddit founded a community, called r/soundofsilence, to post those videos. The subreddit鈥檚 rules state 鈥淪ubmissions should follow despair of a typical character but displayed in a comical value.鈥� There is another, smaller subreddit dedicated to this theme, r/hellodarkness.
One such video, called 鈥淪ad Affleck,鈥� dubbed the first verse of 鈥淭he Sounds of Silence鈥� over a forlorn-looking Ben Affleck, silent in a March 2016 interview, alongside Henry Cavill, co-star of Batman V Superman, which critics panned. Affleck himself responded to the video. Asked in a January 2017 BBC interview if he learned anything from Batman v Superman, Affleck said he learned 鈥渘ot to do interviews with Henry Cavill where I don鈥檛 say anything so they can play Simon and Garfunkel tracks over it.鈥�
The 鈥淪ad Affleck鈥� video, and the subsequent #SadAffleck meme, caused 鈥淭he Sounds of Silence鈥� to chart again. The song reached number six on Billboard鈥檚 Hot Rock Songs chart and number two on the Streaming Rock Songs Chart, owing to 5.6 million streams, mostly on YouTube and largely attributed to the 鈥淪ad Affleck鈥� video.
Around the same time, the heavy metal band Disturbed performed a cover of 鈥渢he Sounds of Silence鈥� on the late-night talk show, Conan. About a week later, the cover reached the number three spot on the Hot Rock Songs Chart, at the same time that the original was at number six. Paul Simon even reached out to Disturbed singer David Draiman, telling Draiman his performance on Conan was 鈥減owerful.鈥�
Whether because of Disturbed, Sad Affleck, or both, search interest for hello darkness peaked April 2016.
Examples of hello darkness, my old friend
Hello darkness, my old friend,
We'll miss the Champions League again...
#尝贵颁鈥�
Who uses hello darkness, my old friend?
Although the lyric is quite melancholy, hello darkness, my old friend is often used to make melodramatic light of an upsetting but not tragic situation, like a sports loss or breakup.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of hello darkness, my old friend like most terms we define on 亚洲网紅露点, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of hello darkness, my old friend that will help our users expand their word mastery.