What is Squirrel Waving Bye In Tornado?

It's an edit of Jonathan Kent's death scene from Man of Steel (2013) with a squirrel put in place of Kevin Costner's character, waving before being sucked into a tornado.

Where did Squirrel Waving Bye In Tornado come from?

The earliest known edit was posted to Reddit's r/DCU_ on July 21st, 2025, ten days after James Gunn's Superman came out, and it went viral the next day on X via user billythebutcher.

What does Squirrel Waving Bye In Tornado mean?

It started as a joke contrasting Zack Snyder's Superman, who won't save his father, with Gunn's Superman, who stops to rescue a squirrel, and later became a general reaction for accepting defeat.

How do you use Squirrel Waving Bye In Tornado?

People typically drop the animated GIF as a reply on X to signal being cooked or outmatched, often with a self-deprecating caption like "Me making several mistakes on my first day at my new job".

Is Squirrel Waving Bye In Tornado still popular?

Yes, it saw a resurgence on X in late August 2026, with posts like 420masterbop's anti-meme pulling in over 144,300 views and 18,000 likes in three days.

Squirrel Waving Bye In Tornado

2025reaction image / GIFresurgent

Published September 2, 2026

Squirrel Waving Bye In Tornado is an edit of the Jonathan Kent death scene from 2013's Man of Steel that swaps Kevin Costner's character for a squirrel raising its paw in farewell. Born as a joke about James Gunn's 2025 Superman saving a squirrel, it became a go-to reaction GIF on X in late August 2026 for accepting defeat.

dialogue edit memes resigned acceptance memes reaction memes dc comics memes gif memes

Overview

Squirrel Waving Bye In Tornado, also known as Superman Tornado Squirrel or Man of Steel Squirrel Getting Sucked Into Storm, plants a cartoon-looking squirrel into the frame where Jonathan Kent stands on the highway in the Zack Snyder film1. The joke works as a two-movie sight gag: 2025's James Gunn Superman famously stops to save a squirrel from an alien attack, and the edit imagines what would happen if the Snyder version of the character showed up instead and let it die3.

Early versions were static image swaps, but the format that took off is a short animation of the squirrel slowly lowering its raised paw before the wind rips it away4. Captions on X tend to lean into the bit that the squirrel is peacefully accepting its fate, which made it a natural fit for GIF-caption replies about being outmatched or humiliated5.

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Origin & Background

Platform

Reddit (first edit) / X (viral spread)

Creator

Unknown

Date

2025

The scene being edited comes from the 2013 DC film Man of Steel, where Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) waves off his son Clark rather than let him reveal his powers by rescuing him from an oncoming tornado2. The squirrel reference comes from a widely shared moment in James Gunn's 2025 Superman, where David Corenswet's Superman pauses a fight to rescue a squirrel from being crushed by a kaiju3.

The earliest known swap was posted to Reddit's r/DCU_ on July 21st, 2025, ten days after Gunn's film opened, with the caption "No, Clark. Let me die"1. The next day, X user billythebutcher pushed the still image viral with the caption "Superman 2025, if directed by Zack Snyder," pulling in more than 4.9 million views6.

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How It Spread

The animated version showed up in the following weeks. On July 26th, 2025, TikTok user notteeenham posted an early motion edit of the squirrel being pulled into the storm while Cavill's Superman looks on7. On August 5th, 2025, TikTok user alchemicalphoenix posted the paw-lowering animation that later became the standard format, again framed as the Snyder version of Gunn's movie8.

The format kept mutating into 2026. On April 28th, 2026, TikTok user ratdrone3 published an edit that layered lightning into Superman's eyes as he watches the squirrel fly off9. On July 22nd, 2026, TikTok user g4be2fak cut the squirrel loose from the Superman footage entirely and used the isolated clip as a punchline about a boyfriend finally logging off Roblox10.

The biggest wave came in late August 2026 on X, where the clip lost its Superman framing altogether and turned into a general "I am cooked" reaction. On August 25th, user girljosefk captioned the GIF "Me making several mistakes on my first day at my new job" and cleared 1.2 million views and roughly 101,000 likes in a week11. On August 29th, 2026, user 420masterbop posted an anti-meme captioned "me when I'm a squirrel and I'm in a tornado," pulling in about 144,300 views and 18,000 likes in three days12.

TikTok

How to Use This Meme

The format is typically used as a GIF caption reply on X, where the squirrel's slow wave stands in for the poster accepting a loss with dignity. Common conventions include pairing the clip with a first-person setup line about being outmatched, cooked, or embarrassed, or dropping it under a tweet as a wordless reaction. Video edits often keep the original Man of Steel audio, but text posts frequently detach the squirrel from the Superman context entirely.