Earlier this week, Twitter user @thenorthmens posted a pair of side-by-side photos of Leonardo DiCaprio comparing the actor as an up-and-coming young star in the 90s to the beefier figure he now cuts in his late 40s.
“Twink death is a terrifying thing,” the user wrote.
And just like that, a meme was born. By Thursday, the term “twink” was trending on Twitter, with users posting similar side-by-side examples of how mostly cis male celebrity heartthrobs have aged.
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Of course, plenty of users posted unflattering photos of older men alongside pics of their younger selves, including President Joe Biden and Alex Jones (though, honestly, you’ll please forgive us if our capacity for body positivity and general human sympathy… falters for that last example.)
“Twink death” generally refers to the process by which a young, skinny gay male becomes not so young and not so skinny. Aging, basically, as our friends over at Into note.
But in this instance, folks on Twitter seem to be using the term to describe celebs like Pedro Pascal, Tom Hardy, and others who have gone from fresh-faced, svelte newcomers to slightly more grizzled older hunks. And by and large, the trend hasn’t been as mean-spirited or judgmental as the initial Leo post, with users pushing back on the idea that aging represents an inevitable decline in sex appeal.
“MY twink has only gotten better actually,” one user wrote of Pascal.
“My white twink king is still standing,” another posted of Hardy.
“MY twink is alive and well,” writer Meecham Whitson Meriweather wrote of Chris Pine, adding of DiCaprio, “RIP to him tho.”
From there folks posited a new term: “DILF birth.”
“twink death or dilf birth? trying to figure sumth out here,” one wrote of Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong.
“when a twink dies, a dilf is reborn…” another posted of Christian Bale.
And in one of the more controversial posts, another user wrote of John Krasinski, “his twink death led to his dilf birth.”
That post led several other users to question whether the word “twink” had lost all meaning in this “discussion.”
Meanwhile, others took issue with the fact that most of the celebs in other users’ posts have been straight. “ok at least they’ve started posting gay guys for the twink death meme but they’re posting the one gay guy who’s 10 feet tall,” someone wrote of the Lee Pace post.
And of course, lots of folks just had fun posting dumb jokes about this dumb meme:
