# King Baldwin IV Hand Raise King Baldwin IV Hand Raise refers to a brief shot from the 2005 Ridley Scott film Kingdom of Heaven in which the leper king, played by a masked Edward Norton, lifts his hand to silence a court[1]. TikTok editors adopted the clip in 2021, and a March 30th, 2024 edit by @sev7enalt collected over 9.8 million plays in four days, turning the gesture into a reaction format and a Silence X, a Y Is Talking template[5]. ## Origin The scene comes from Kingdom of Heaven, released in American theaters on May 6th, 2005, in which actor Edward Norton plays Baldwin IV, the historical 12th-century King of Jerusalem known as the Leper King[1]. During the film, Baldwin assembles his army inside a hall and silently raises his hand to quiet the room, a moment captured in a widely reposted YouTube upload of the clip[1]. The earliest documented edit using the shot was posted by TikTok user @adella.yo on September 26th, 2021, which went on to collect over 1.6 million plays and 151,200 likes within three years[2]. Further TikTok edits followed through 2022 and 2023 before the format broke out in early 2024[4]. - **Platform:** Film (Kingdom of Heaven) / TikTok (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown (earliest known poster: TikTok user @adella.yo) - **Date:** 2021 ## Overview Users typically overlay the Baldwin clip onto gaming clutch moments, moral dilemmas or situations calling for a theatrical demand to stop, with on-screen text playing against the king's silent, masked gesture[4]. Phonk-scored versions became common on YouTube Shorts and TikTok, giving the slow hand raise an aggressive sting[6]. The still image of Baldwin with his arm up also travels as a reaction GIF on Tumblr and later became the base of a Silence X, a Y Is Talking panel template[4]. King Baldwin IV Hand Raise edits lean on the contrast between a solemn 12th-century king in a silver mask and whatever everyday or absurd scenario the text sets up. The joke lands because Baldwin never speaks, so the caption carries all the specificity while the gesture supplies the gravity[2]. ## How It Spread On January 29th, 2023, YouTuber jameater uploaded a King Baldwin IV Hand Raise edit that passed 287,600 views within a year[3]. YouTuber HACKS VITAE followed on May 27th, 2023, with a phonk-scored version of the same clip that collected over 35,000 views in eleven months[6]. Tumblr blogger pickled0ctopus shared a GIF of the hand raise on February 23rd, 2023, which gathered more than 3,000 notes over the following year[4]. The format peaked in early 2024. On March 30th, 2024, TikToker @sev7enalt posted an edit captioned, 'When the clutch is so fabulous that you just sit there and revive you teammate like nothing happened,' which attracted over 9.8 million plays and 2 million likes in four days[5]. The same day, TikToker @relatabledome posted a Slow Fade-In meme reading, 'When you genuinely in the wrong and have to pull out one of these,' which collected over 3.3 million plays and 728,500 likes before being deleted[4]. Instagram adopted the format in April 2024[4]. ## How to Use A common approach is to drop the Baldwin hand raise into a video as a reaction to someone making a bad argument, botching gameplay or trying to escalate a situation. Creators often add on-screen text in the style of 'When you genuinely in the wrong and have to pull out one of these' and set the clip to phonk or ominous orchestral music[6]. In Silence X, a Y Is Talking panel edits, Baldwin's raised hand replaces the usual silencing character[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is King Baldwin IV Hand Raise? It is a reaction clip and image macro based on the moment in Kingdom of Heaven when the masked King Baldwin IV raises his hand to silence a crowd, used in TikTok edits and Silence X, a Y Is Talking panels[1][4]. ### Where did King Baldwin IV Hand Raise come from? The source is Ridley Scott's 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven, with Edward Norton playing Baldwin IV in a silver mask; the earliest known TikTok edit was posted by @adella.yo on September 26th, 2021[1][2]. ### What does King Baldwin IV Hand Raise mean? The gesture means 'stop' in the film and is used online as a dramatic, silencing reaction to bad takes, gaming clutch moments or admissions of being in the wrong[4][5]. ### How do you use King Baldwin IV Hand Raise? Creators overlay the clip with captioned text or set it to phonk music, as HACKS VITAE did on May 27th, 2023, with the hand raise acting as a visual mic drop[6]. ### Is King Baldwin IV Hand Raise still popular? It peaked in early 2024 after @sev7enalt's edit collected over 9.8 million plays in four days and continues to appear on TikTok and Instagram[5][4]. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfY3apD1PKM]() 2. [https://www.tiktok.com/@adella.yo/video/7012252867620769025]() 3. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu8MwTYqMGc]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/king-baldwin-iv-hand-raise]() 5. [https://www.tiktok.com/@sev7enalt/video/7352210880718818592]() 6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFMeNTEthLc]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/king-baldwin-iv-hand-raise Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library