Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

2013audio memeclassic

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend is the opening lyric of Simon & Garfunkel's 1964 song 'The Sound of Silence', which the internet turned into shorthand for on-camera regret. After Arrested Development used the song during Gob's saddest scenes in 2013, YouTubers began dubbing the fingerpicked intro over defeated-looking video subjects, peaking with the 2016 Sad Affleck edit that pushed the 52-year-old track back onto the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart.

audio memesmusic memesmashup video memesdelayed virality memescatchphrase memes

Overview

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend edits ride on audio recognition. When the fingerpicked chords of 'The Sound of Silence' fade in behind a video subject who has just registered quiet defeat, viewers get the joke without needing a caption or punchline. The format works because the song's original tone was youthful alienation, and Paul Simon told NPR the lyric was 'post-adolescent angst' rather than deep suffering1. Online use of the phrase itself ranges from serious edit captions to typing it as a joke reaction to any everyday misfortune2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Television (Arrested Development) / YouTube (viral spread)
Date
2013

Paul Simon wrote 'The Sounds of Silence' at 21 while living with his parents, playing guitar in the bathroom because the tiles gave the acoustic a slight echo1. Simon & Garfunkel recorded it in March 1964 with producer Tom Wilson and released it that October on their debut LP Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which sold about 2,000 copies before the duo split up in the shadow of Beatlemania1. The song's meme afterlife started decades later on television.

How It Spread

In May 2013, Netflix released the fourth season of Arrested Development, which used 'The Sound of Silence' during scenes where the character Gob is crushed by regret; Google searches for 'hello darkness my old friend' spiked afterward3. The following July, YouTuber Joe Bell edited the song over a viral clip of a sad Brazilian World Cup fan, and days later user convulsion0inc dubbed it over David Guetta pretending to DJ at Tomorrowland, a video that crossed 1.3 million views after Redditor dragonsky pushed it to /r/youtubehaiku. By early 2015 the format had a home base: on January 27th Redditor larperdoodle posted 'Hello dankness my old friend' to /r/dankmemes with the reply 'I've come to browse your memes again', and on February 7th /r/TheSoundofSilence launched to collect the edits. A May 2015 clip of an expressionless man on a reverse bungee ride cleared 1.2 million views in four months.

By March 2016, Hello Darkness, My Old Friend edits were everywhere. On the 24th, YouTuber Sabconth cut a Yahoo News interview where Ben Affleck sat next to Henry Cavill answering questions about Batman v Superman reviews, layering negative headlines over the song's intro; the Sad Affleck edit racked up 21 million views in three weeks3. Five days later Disturbed played their metal cover of the song on Conan, and by April 'The Sound of Silence' had reached No. 6 on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart with streams up 582 percent3.

How to Use This Meme

The template is audio-first. Typical edits open on someone whose face is registering quiet horror, hold a beat of silence, then drop the fingerpicked intro of 'The Sound of Silence'. Longer versions stack captions or news headlines that spell out why the subject is falling apart, while short cuts trust the viewer to already know.

Frequently Asked Questions

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

2013audio memeclassic

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend is the opening lyric of Simon & Garfunkel's 1964 song 'The Sound of Silence', which the internet turned into shorthand for on-camera regret. After Arrested Development used the song during Gob's saddest scenes in 2013, YouTubers began dubbing the fingerpicked intro over defeated-looking video subjects, peaking with the 2016 Sad Affleck edit that pushed the 52-year-old track back onto the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart.

audio memes music memes mashup video memes delayed virality memes catchphrase memes

Overview

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend edits ride on audio recognition. When the fingerpicked chords of 'The Sound of Silence' fade in behind a video subject who has just registered quiet defeat, viewers get the joke without needing a caption or punchline. The format works because the song's original tone was youthful alienation, and Paul Simon told NPR the lyric was 'post-adolescent angst' rather than deep suffering1. Online use of the phrase itself ranges from serious edit captions to typing it as a joke reaction to any everyday misfortune2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Television (Arrested Development) / YouTube (viral spread)
Date
2013

Paul Simon wrote 'The Sounds of Silence' at 21 while living with his parents, playing guitar in the bathroom because the tiles gave the acoustic a slight echo1. Simon & Garfunkel recorded it in March 1964 with producer Tom Wilson and released it that October on their debut LP Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which sold about 2,000 copies before the duo split up in the shadow of Beatlemania1. The song's meme afterlife started decades later on television.

How It Spread

In May 2013, Netflix released the fourth season of Arrested Development, which used 'The Sound of Silence' during scenes where the character Gob is crushed by regret; Google searches for 'hello darkness my old friend' spiked afterward3. The following July, YouTuber Joe Bell edited the song over a viral clip of a sad Brazilian World Cup fan, and days later user convulsion0inc dubbed it over David Guetta pretending to DJ at Tomorrowland, a video that crossed 1.3 million views after Redditor dragonsky pushed it to /r/youtubehaiku. By early 2015 the format had a home base: on January 27th Redditor larperdoodle posted 'Hello dankness my old friend' to /r/dankmemes with the reply 'I've come to browse your memes again', and on February 7th /r/TheSoundofSilence launched to collect the edits. A May 2015 clip of an expressionless man on a reverse bungee ride cleared 1.2 million views in four months.

By March 2016, Hello Darkness, My Old Friend edits were everywhere. On the 24th, YouTuber Sabconth cut a Yahoo News interview where Ben Affleck sat next to Henry Cavill answering questions about Batman v Superman reviews, layering negative headlines over the song's intro; the Sad Affleck edit racked up 21 million views in three weeks3. Five days later Disturbed played their metal cover of the song on Conan, and by April 'The Sound of Silence' had reached No. 6 on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart with streams up 582 percent3.

How to Use This Meme

The template is audio-first. Typical edits open on someone whose face is registering quiet horror, hold a beat of silence, then drop the fingerpicked intro of 'The Sound of Silence'. Longer versions stack captions or news headlines that spell out why the subject is falling apart, while short cuts trust the viewer to already know.

Frequently Asked Questions