The Brief: "Were you silent or were you silenced?" memes began appearing on Twitter and TikTok after Oprah posed the question to Meghan Markle during an interview special.
DEEP DIVE
On Sunday evening, Oprah held an exclusive interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry about their decision to leave the United Kingdom after dealing with British tabloids and alleged mistreatment from the royal family.
One question that stood out during Markle and Oprah’s two-hour conversation was “Were you silent or were you silenced?”
The query instantly became the center of memes and a new TikTok trend. On Twitter, users paired the video clip with captions about various things that are silent, typically letters in different words.
Me interviewing the letter H in the word “hour” pic.twitter.com/iFRDFdiWSD
— Johnny Neff (@JohnnyNeff) March 8, 2021
Me having an exclusive interview with the letter “g” in lasagna: pic.twitter.com/Vo5QI1ck9P
— Tenille. (@tenilleclarke1) March 8, 2021
me talking to the lambs pic.twitter.com/XQTNxZm9k7
— sam (@samdnte) March 8, 2021
Me interviewing the invisible letter “H” in my name pic.twitter.com/hz0ycqKWon
— Sadé Spence, Reporter (@SadeASpence) March 9, 2021
In TikTok videos, users are lip-syncing to the audio in skits about silent letters and cartoon characters. Here’s one for the word “queue.”
@thomasmurray.1 I hope this hasn’t been done before🥲 #fyp #harrymeghanoprah #oprah #oprahwinfrey #wereyousilentorwereyousilenced
Here’s another with a creator interviewing Ferb of Phineas & Ferb:
@yookos ahhhh a man that doesn’t speak 🥰🥰🥰 #phineasandferb #silentorsilenced #Coming2America #fyp #uk
And, Ariel of The Little Mermaid.
@skinnty_ Ariel finally breaks her silence(tuh) on Ursula. #blackcreatives #tiktokpartner #littlemermaid #mermaidtiktok