# Staring Hamster Staring Hamster is a reaction image and short video of a hamster locking eyes with the camera, first popularized in a January 2019 TikTok lipsync by @beanboy22. The looping stare spread across iFunny, Twitter and Instagram within a week and later became the mascot of TikTok's 2021 Hamster Cult, a joke faction formed to troll Lana Del Rey fans. ## Origin The earliest known appearance of the hamster is a TikTok posted on January 13th, 2019 by user @beanboy22, who lipsyncs a line from the web series The Real Bros of Simi Valley over footage of the animal staring into the lens[5]. The scene being mouthed originates from a Facebook clip of the show[6]. Within about a week the original TikTok pulled in over 124,000 reactions and 13,000 shares[2]. The hamster itself is the subject rather than the creator of the format, and the earliest known meme use is credited to @beanboy22's post rather than to any confirmed edit artist behind the isolated stare loop[2]. - **Platform:** TikTok (origin) / Twitter and iFunny (viral spread) - **Creator:** @beanboy22 (earliest known poster) - **Date:** 2019 ## Overview Staring Hamster is a short clip and image macro of a small hamster looking dead-eyed straight into the camera. The stare reads as blank, mildly judgmental, or unsettling depending on the caption, which is why it slotted so easily into a reaction-image slot next to formats like Staring Kanye[1]. The looped, silent version stripped of its original lipsync audio is the one most people recognize[2]. The format is usually deployed as a wordless response or as a captioned macro implying the hamster has just witnessed something baffling. It also picked up a second life in 2021 as the mascot of TikTok's Hamster Cult, where users swapped their avatars to the hamster's face as a group identity[3]. That later chapter turned a single reaction image into a full running joke community, complete with in-jokes about hoarding hamsters and declaring war on rival fandoms[4]. ## How It Spread On January 16th, 2019, Instagram user benisblaster re-edited the TikTok into a silent loop of just the hamster's stare, which pulled more than 15,000 views and 4,183 likes in its first week[2]. Two days later on iFunny, users Avuelix and Jepsi built Facetime crossover edits pairing the hamster with Staring Kanye, each racking up thousands of smiles over the following year[7][8]. The format broke out on Twitter on January 19th, 2019, when @Slazo shared Avuelix's version. That tweet cleared 32,000 retweets and 87,000 likes within three days, moving the hamster from TikTok and iFunny niches into general reaction-image rotation[1]. In February 2021, Staring Hamster returned as the face of TikTok's Hamster Cult, a parody faction created to mock the then-viral Lana Del Ray cult. On February 20th, 2021, @Camellia_Alexan tweeted screenshots of Hamster Cult members swarming Lana fans in TikTok comments[3]. The same day, user @walterhastalent posted about waking up to 286 hamster-avatar followers and framed the trend as a TikTok war against Lana Del Rey[4]. ## How to Use Common convention is to drop the silent looping clip or a still frame as a reply when someone posts something odd, uncomfortable, or hard to react to in words. People typically pair it with a short caption like a question the hamster is silently asking, or use it as a profile picture to signal Hamster Cult affiliation[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Staring Hamster? It's a reaction image and short video of a hamster staring straight into the camera, used as a wordless response to strange or uncomfortable posts[2]. ### Where did Staring Hamster come from? TikTok user @beanboy22 posted the earliest known clip on January 13th, 2019, lipsyncing a scene from The Real Bros of Simi Valley[6]. ### What does Staring Hamster mean? The blank, direct stare reads as confusion, mild judgment or unease, which is why it works as a reaction image alongside formats like Staring Kanye[7]. ### How do you use Staring Hamster? People typically reply with the silent looping clip or a still frame to react to something odd, or set it as their avatar to signal Hamster Cult membership[3]. ### Is Staring Hamster still popular? It's a classic reaction image that saw a second surge in February 2021 as the mascot of TikTok's Hamster Cult, an anti-Lana Del Rey parody faction[4]. ## References 1. [https://twitter.com/Slazo/status/1086432271698092032]() 2. [https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6646191924438895877]() 3. [https://twitter.com/Camellia_Alexan/status/1363378822842773510]() 4. [https://twitter.com/walterhastalent/status/1363253984715300875]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/staring-hamster]() 6. [https://www.facebook.com/therealbrosofsimivalley/videos/278382866354301/]() 7. [https://ifunny.co/video/yx8tadSP6]() 8. [https://ifunny.co/video/LrGVrfSP6]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/staring-hamster Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library