The ‘Symphony’ dolphin meme has been flooding social media accounts as part of a growing viral trend.
This new trend involves people posting photos and videos of radiant dolphins and pairing them with self-depreciating, morbid and often hilarious messages with the song “Symphony” by Clean Bandit and Zara Larsson playing in the background.
Dolphin Meme: Origins
Beginning on TikTok, the account @heiratet started the trend last month by posting the dolphin imagery played to the hit 2017 song, along the message, “I’m depressed.”
The account continued posting the same content with different messages, such as “I have social anxiety,” “I overthink everything,” and “My mental health is gone”.
The contrast between the upbeat music, sparkling dolphin and downbeat text struck a chord with social media viewers, earning the clip millions of views.
A Viral trend?
The meme soon became viral, with other TikTok users joining in and creating their own equally humorous or morbid versions. Some examples include “I just took a sh*t,” “I would sell you for one single beer,”, etc.
It has also gained popularity on other social media platforms, particularly Instagram and, to a lesser extent, X, with variations in the template:
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Zara Larsson responds:
The meme’s popularity even caught the attention of Zara Larsson herself, who participated by posting an image with the caption “What the f*k is happening,”. This has garnered over 63 million views till date.
Larsson took the joke even further by incorporating similar dolphin visuals into her stage performances of ‘Symphony,’ delighting fans.
Clean Bandit themselves took notice of the trend, calling the dolphins “inspiring”.
