Close-up of Tom Holland staring blankly at the camera against a teal background

Tom Holland Staring

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Published October 27, 2026

Tom Holland Staring, also called the Tom Holland Face Meme, is a TikTok image macro built on a headshot of the actor looking visibly annoyed. Starting late September 2026, creators paired the stare with captions about awkward or disappointing moments, and by mid-October it was the default reaction image for jokes about an underwhelming GTA VI reveal.

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Overview

Posts in the Tom Holland Staring format usually combine the Holland headshot with a two-part setup: a caption describing a frustrating or embarrassing scenario, then an image showing whatever supposedly caused the look. One common joke template reads "When you finally load GTA VI and see this," followed by a screenshot that implies the long-awaited game is a letdown, like a rival engine logo or screenshots lifted from cheap mobile titles5.

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The headshot itself is a straight-on profile image of Holland looking forward, which TikTokers read as annoyance, disappointment, or deadpan judgment3. The appeal sits in how flexible that single face is: earlier edits leaned into personal embarrassment captions about relationships and social slip-ups1, while later ones pivoted toward gaming jokes about studios cutting corners2.

Origin & Background

Platform
TikTok
Date
2026

In late September 2026, TikTokers began using a Tom Holland headshot to react to specific social situations where someone would look visibly annoyed3. TikToker @lillebron223 posted the earliest known version on September 27th, 2026, captioned "How I look after screen sharing to shorty and she say 'why you got a heart next to my name' and start laughing at me," which reached over 259,000 views within a month1.

Holland did not create the meme and had no involvement in the format. The image used across the earliest edits is a profile headshot of the actor hosted on TheMovieDB, which TikTokers screenshotted and recaptioned6.

How It Spread

Through October 2026, the format moved outward from relationship awkwardness toward wider meme targets. On October 5th, 2026, @el.cobbler ran it with the caption "When someone is talkin good about you but someone interrupts and mention you get no play," collecting over 240,000 views in three weeks2.

The inflection point came on October 15th, 2026, when @tung_tung_675 posted a video using the Holland stare to react to a joke claim that GTA VI was built in the Unity engine, reaching over 1.7 million views in ten days4. From there, GTA VI jokes dominated the format3.

On October 18th, 2026, @makzw0 posted an edit that matched the loading-GTA-VI caption with mobile game screenshots, implying the finished product would look cheaply made, reaching over 395,000 views in a week5. By late October 2026, the Tom Holland Face Meme was the go-to reaction image for jokes about underwhelming reveals.

Timeline

2026-09-27

TikToker @lillebron223 posts the earliest known Tom Holland Staring edit about a screen-sharing moment, reaching over 259,000 views.

2026-10-05

TikToker @el.cobbler posts a version about being insulted mid-compliment, gaining over 240,000 views.

2026-10-15

TikToker @tung_tung_675 posts a GTA VI Unity engine joke that reaches over 1.7 million views in ten days.

2026-10-18

TikToker @makzw0 posts a GTA VI edit paired with cheap-looking mobile game screenshots, hitting over 395,000 views in a week.

How to Use This Meme

Making a Tom Holland Staring post typically involves a reaction caption describing a frustrating or awkward moment, the Holland headshot, and often a second image showing the thing that caused the look. Common conventions include GTA VI loading captions matched with mobile game screenshots or screenshots of competing game engines5.

Frequently Asked Questions