The clip works by colliding two things that rarely meet: a chirpy red-carpet interview and a Hollywood star openly refusing to play along. Instead of talking about the party, Carrey looks past the E! reporter and calls the Harper's Bazaar ICONS event 'the most meaningless thing I could come to and join'1. He also tells the reporter 'there is no me, there's just things happening,' delivered in the same flat, faraway tone that runs through the whole interview2.

The tone sits between comedy and unease. Some viewers read Carrey's lines about the self being an illusion as a sincere pitch for non-duality, others as a bit only he could deliver with a straight face3. That double reading kept the clip in circulation, since either interpretation gives people a reason to repost it. Still frames of his blank stare also work as image macros paired with captions about existential dread or Monday-morning burnout.

People typically share the E! clip or a still of Carrey's blank stare as a reaction to press junkets, award shows, marketing stunts and corporate events that feel hollow. Common conventions include pairing screenshots with captions about existential dread, dissociation or Monday-morning burnout, and quoting the 'there is no me, there's just things happening' line under photos of similarly staged red-carpet moments.