Chad Face

2022facial expression trendsemi-active

Chad Face is a facial expression trend where creators contort their features (slanted eyebrows, sucked cheeks, flared nostrils, puckered lips) to mimic the perceived look of GigaChad. It took off on TikTok in 2022 alongside beat-drop transitions and face-stretch filters, spawning millions of imitations and tutorial videos.

Overview

Chad Face, also called GigaChad Face, is the do-it-yourself facial expression tied to the Chad and GigaChad meme characters3. The look involves slanting the eyebrows down, flaring the nostrils, sucking in the cheeks, puckering the lips, and jutting the jaw forward to sharpen the jawline.

Its visual cues borrow from Mewing, a jawline-strengthening practice that spread on YouTube starting in 2011, and from the 'Millimeters of Bone' jawline aesthetic that surfaced on Twitter in June 20163. On TikTok, creators usually deliver the face as a rapid transition on a beat drop.

How It Spread

By early 2022 the trend was locked in. TikToker ithunderballz posted the earliest known iteration of the beat-drop Chad Face trend on March 7, 2022, hitting roughly 1.9 million plays and 283,200 likes in seven months1. Two days later, Brazilian creator peiranoo posted their own version that pulled around 3.2 million plays and 418,700 likes6.

Filter-free tutorials followed. TikToker lunarsviel uploaded one on April 2, 2022 that reached 20.6 million plays and 2.7 million likes in six months4. On June 26, 2022, TikToker itsyuhboiisam posted his own how-to that gained 50.9 million plays and 5.1 million likes in four months5. The song 'Prolly My Spookiest Beat' by Prodby668 became the trend's signature audio, often paired with the TikTok Face Stretch filter to punctuate the transition on the beat drop1.

How to Use This Meme

The typical Chad Face clip starts on a neutral shot, then cuts to the exaggerated face on a beat drop or bass hit. Common conventions include using the TikTok Face Stretch filter, syncing to 'Prolly My Spookiest Beat,' and layering Vine Boom audio1. Some creators skip the filter entirely and hold the pose manually, following tutorials like lunarsviel's4.

Frequently Asked Questions