Memes

What is ‘Starlight Mogging’ and how’d it become a meme?

A Gigachat-like look at the meme derived from the fourth season of Amazon’s hit series The Boys.

Photo of Mike Hadge

Mike Hadge

Erin Moriarty (Annie January aka Starlight)
Amazon MGM Studios (Public Domain)

Starlight Mogging is a series of memes and online jokes about Starlight from Amazon’s hit superhero satire The Boys, played by actress Erin Moriarty. During the show’s fourth season in June 2024, fans began sharing memes about Moriarty’s more angular facial appearance in the new season, which some have speculated is due to cosmetic surgery.

Featured Video
Starlight mogging source - Erin Moriarty's side-by-side appearance
Reddit/acheli

The Starlight Mogging memes start with the character of Bill Butcher (Karl Urban) saying, “Oi oi bruv Homelander done killed my wife.” This is followed by an image of Starlight with exaggerated, Giga Chad-like features.

What does it mean to be mogged?

To be mogged is to be dominated or outperformed by another party. This can be in success, social standing, or physical appearance. Often, mogging is shorthand for showing others up by doing everything possible to be in the best physical shape. To be mogged is a great indignity meant to bring about greater shame. 

Advertisement

What is mogging someone in the gym?

To mog at the gym means to show others around you up with your physical prowess. This can occur via using more difficult exercise settings, heavier weights, and most likely, having a better body. It is often used ironically on social media. 

What is mogging the jawline?

Mogging the jawline is to get your jawline as chiseled as possible to overshadow those with lesser jawlines. Similar trends occur with “chinmogging,” “heightmogging,” “hairmogging,” and “framemogging.” 

Advertisement

What does ‘Starlight Mogging’ mean?

Starlight mogging refers to the increasingly chiseled face of actress Erin Moriarty, combined with the fact that the character of Starlight, a superhero, rarely actively contributes her superhero powers to the conquests of the titular Boys. 

Origins of Starlight Mogging

Starlight Mogging was borne fom the Amazon Prime superhero satire The Boys, which premiered on the platform on July 26th, 2019. In episode one, Erin Moriarty played the role of Annie January (aka Starlight).

Advertisement

As the seasons progressed, Moriarty’s facial appearance became slightly leaner, leading many to speculate that she’d had plastic surgery done. The issue became so heated that Moriarty herself had to respond after an accusation by podcast host and noted ghoul Megyn Kelly that she was addicted to plastic surgery. 

As for the meme, the earliest known Starlight mogging appeared on June 25th, 2024, when TikToker @mediocre_art_world a drawing of Starlight’s face designed to give her exaggerated, Gigachad proportions. The image was captioned, “Homelander killed me wife and took me son!”  It received over 3 million plays and 450k likes in the following two weeks.

@mediocre_art_world Bros been mewing😂🙏🏽 #capcut #theboys #starlight #theboysstarlight #plasticsurgery #drawing #art #mew #looksmax #billybutcher #homelander ♬ original sound – marv • Meap

Spread of the meme

For the remainder of June 2024, other TikTokers posted variations on the Starlight mogging meme. On June 29th, @artbybamuel posted an image featuring Starlight mewing, captioned “the boys in a nutshell.” It garnered over 7 million views and 1 million likes in a week.

Advertisement
@artbybamuel Starlight been mewing😭🙏 #art #artbybamuel #starlight #mewing #billybutcher #theboys #amazon ♬ original sound – marv • Meap

That same day, @mrfisterrr posted a TikTok utilizing the character builder from Elden Ring. It received over 3 million plays and 500k likes in a week.

@mrfisterrr

Billy getting mogged #theboys #homelander #starlight #amazon #billybutcher #eldenring #eldenringmeme #fyp #foryoupage #viral #trending

♬ original sound – marv • Meap

On June 30th, TikToker @anup_ssss posted another variation on the Starlight mogging meme, which gathered over 1 million views.

Advertisement
@anup_ssss Starlight’s still pretty tho😭 #art #artbybamuel #starlight #mewing #billybutcher #theboys #amazon ♬ original sound – marv • Meap

On July 5th, TikToker @sirczar27 posted an impressive Etch-a-Sketch version of the meme. It received 800k views. 

@sirczar27 moglight #fyp #mew #theboys #starlight #butcher #etchasketch ♬ original sound – marv • Meap

On July 7th, Lessons In Meme Culture posted a video on YouTube about the trend, which gathered over 340k views in a single day. 

Advertisement

Meme examples

Starlight mogging meme from The Boys featuring Firecracker
Reddit/ultimateftbear2006
@zz2k.danbe She mewing #foryoupage #theboys #homelander #slander #starlight #homelander ♬ original sound – marv • Meap
Advertisement
@boeshi Starlight mewing #theboys #homelander #starlight #boeshi ♬ original sound – marv • Meap
Starlight mogging meme featuring Erin Moriarty and Valorie Curry
Reddit/limp-giraffe-4411

More The Boys memes:

Advertisement

The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

 
The Daily Dot