Memes

The ‘Queen Never Cry’ meme has all the babes locked in

Queen, never cry while holding space for Defying Gravity.

Photo of Lindsey Weedston

Lindsey Weedston

Three panel design with a woman looking upset with her arms crossed, the middle panel is a man looking sad with his head on his hand, and the last panel is a woman looking upset.

The “Queen Never Cry” meme, aka the “Queen Don’t Cry” meme, uses panels from a comedy webtoon featuring a newborn baby and mother. As part of the story’s comedic premise, the woman in the comic whispers “Queen never cry” to the infant and she’s handed to her mother for the first time and instantly stops wailing.

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Social media users widely found the attempt at humor to be wildly successful, and now the viral catchphrase “Queen Never Cry” can be found across Reddit, Twitter, and TikTok.

https://twitter.com/Nana281000/status/1860368576399409500

Meme basics:

  • Meme Creator: Webtoons author bumbae
  • Meme Type: Catchphrase / Exploitable
  • First Appearance: Nov. 22, 2024
  • Origin Source: Webtoons
  • Used to Convey: Ironic lack of emotion
  • Peak Popularity: Late Nov. 2024
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Google Trends report for the term 'Queen Never Cry.'
Google Trends

What is the Queen Never Cry meme?

The comic with the intimidating baby you might have seen around is from a chapter of the webtoon The Ki Sisters by user bumbae. It’s a comedy and satirical take on a certain type of South Korean drama following four wealthy, homeschooled, and rather sinister sisters.

In chapter 34, one of these sisters has a baby. The part of the chapter that became a meme shows her sitting up in her hospital bed, arms crossed and makeup immaculate, as someone hands her the blubbering newborn. Instead of taking her, the new mom simply says “queen never cry” and the baby snaps into her mother’s pose and expression to the shock of the hospital workers.

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This moment is funny enough on its own that the meme currently consists of simple references and fan art. It’s a perfect catchphrase that people have already mixed with nods to other memes.

Origins and spread

Webtoons artist and author bumbae published this chapter of The Ki Sisters on Nov. 22, 2024, according to Know Your Meme. On the same day, Reddit user u/OriginalAlberto clipped the part just after the birth and posted it to the manhwa (Korean comics) board after spotting it on Discord and finding it ridiculous enough to be intriguing.

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By Nov. 23, it had spread to Twitter. After people had time for their initial reactions to the image, it took less than a day for users to start referencing it in tweets without the comic and mix that with phrases from other recent memes. Many noticed that the baby looked to be “locked in,” for example.

Meanwhile, on TikTok, users there started making fan edits of the four-panel section of the comic, putting audio to the scene, and mixing it with references to the Charli XCX album “Brat.”

@maryxsq._ Queen never CRY.💜 || me after changing ny watermark in every video💜 || #?gach️alife💜 #gacha #queennevercry #💜 #queen #icon #baby ♬ original sound – ꒰ 𐙚𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 ꒱── .✦𝟒𝟎𝐊+
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Meme crossover: Black Solo Polyamorous Hijabi Amputee and ‘Defying Gravity’

There is a particular trend going on that crosses the phrase “queen never cry” with other viral memes that emerged in Nov. 2024. In particular, social media users are tapping the Black Solo Polyamorous Hijabi Amputee and the meme from that Wicked interview about “Defying Gravity.”

In Body Image
@grovymango/X.com

Both of these memes can be considered within the genre of jokes about people being overly deferential to what some call “wokeness.” The highly marginalized individual in an explainer about “solo poly” might indeed be moved by the lyrics of “Defying Gravity,” which could in turn bring Cynthia Erivo to tears.

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https://twitter.com/Thepromisedork/status/1860505943470899298

With the advent of the Queen Never Cry meme, you might see statements along the lines of “me when I’m a solo poly black amputee houseless hijabi at the epilepsy brat themed times square trying to hold space for defying gravity and queer media but then i tell myself queen never cry.”

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Queen Never Cry meme examples

@poot180000 queen never CRY💜#spedupsounds #fyp #fypシ゚ #foryou #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp #fypage #foryoupagе #xyzbca #viral #trending #floptok #diva ♬ original sound – My Legs Just Divorced🦵🏻
@ffvhuutfgh123 умол, я не могла пройти мимо этого #queennevercry #Naruto #narutoshippuden #hiruzen #наруто #нарутошипуден #хокагенеплачут ♬ sonido original – 🅒🅞🅡🅑🅨
Queen Never Cry meme with a video of a woman making a blank face.
@staarrgirrl/TikTok
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Video of a woman in a blue sweater and full makeup crossing her arms and speaking to the camera.
@staarrgirrl/TikTok
Video of a woman in a red shirt crossing her arms and glowering at the camera.
@cyber.ghetto/TikTok
queen never cry meme
@cyber.ghetto/TikTok
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