Hello My Old Friend Talk to You Again

• Examples
• Origin
• Usage

Memes dictionary

hi darkness, my old friend

Published March 1, 2018

What does hi darkness, my old friend mean?

Hello darkness, my old friend is a meme used to humorously limited despair or existential angst. It is often used as an epitome caption or as a musical snippet played over a video.

Where does hi darkness, my one-time friend come from?

Hi darkness, my old friend is the offset line of Simon and Garfunkel'southward striking 1964 song, "The Sounds of Silence." Paul Simon after described the song's melancholy lyrics as stemming from "youthful alienation." A remixed version of the song—the version commonly heard on TV, movies, and radio today—rose to the top of the Billboard charts in November 1965.

"The Sounds of Silence" was used throughout the soundtrack of the 1967 movie The Graduate, most notably in the final scene, underpinning the protagonist Ben's (Dustin Hoffman) tiresome-dawning realization his of emotional emptiness.

In its fourth flavor, the sitcom Arrested Development riffed on The Graduate'south employ of "The Sounds of Silence." On the show, the offset line or two of the song, including its signature hello darkness, my old friend, ofttimes played every bit the character Gob Bluth (and occasionally characters) faced harrowing realizations or moments of despair. Google search interest for the phrase howdy darkness, spiked effectually the same time the first of these episodes aired, in May 2013.

In 2014, a YouTube video surfaced dubbing a distraught Brazilian fan at the World Cup with the opening lines of "the Sounds of Silence." Similar videos followed.

In February 2015, users on the online message lath site Reddit founded a customs, chosen r/soundofsilence, to post those videos. The subreddit's rules land "Submissions should follow despair of a typical character simply displayed in a comical value." There is some other, smaller subreddit dedicated to this theme, r/hellodarkness.

One such video, chosen "Lamentable Affleck," dubbed the first poetry of "The Sounds of Silence" over a forlorn-looking Ben Affleck, silent in a March 2016 interview, aslope Henry Cavill, co-star of Batman Five Superman, which critics panned. Affleck himself responded to the video. Asked in a January 2017 BBC interview if he learned annihilation from Batman five Superman, Affleck said he learned "not to exercise interviews with Henry Cavill where I don't say anything so they tin can play Simon and Garfunkel tracks over it."

The "Deplorable Affleck" video, and the subsequent #SadAffleck meme, caused "The Sounds of Silence" to chart again. The song reached number vi on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs nautical chart and number two on the Streaming Rock Songs Chart, owing to five.vi 1000000 streams, by and large on YouTube and largely attributed to the "Lamentable Affleck" video.

Around the same time, the heavy metal band Disturbed performed a cover of "the Sounds of Silence" on the tardily-nighttime talk show, Conan. Virtually a calendar week afterwards, the comprehend reached the number three spot on the Hot Rock Songs Chart, at the same time that the original was at number six. Paul Simon even reached out to Disturbed singer David Draiman, telling Draiman his performance on Conan was "powerful."

Whether because of Disturbed, Pitiful Affleck, or both, search interest for hello darkness peaked April 2016.

Examples of howdy darkness, my former friend

"Hullo darkness, my quondam friend, Nosotros'll miss the Champions League again... #LFC"

James Henderson @jayc4life Twitter (Apr 7, 2017)

"Two days later a break up: imma join gym and win at life!!! V days later: Hi darkness my old friend..."

Ben Rabinovich @benjyrabs Twitter (April seven, 2017)

"'Hello darkness my one-time friend, I've come to talk with yous again.' But non actually, y'all're just hither to suck the happiness out of my life slowly and painfully. That's right my friends, daylight savings has spiralled the good people of America back into the literal Nighttime Ages."

Victoria Parrish, Her Campus (November 7, 2016)

Who uses hello darkness, my erstwhile friend?

Although the lyric is quite melancholy, hello darkness, my old friend is often used to make melodramatic lite of an upsetting but not tragic situation, like a sports loss or breakup.

Note

This is not meant to be a formal definition of hello darkness, my one-time friend like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, just is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the significant and usage of howdy darkness, my old friend that volition assistance our users aggrandize their give-and-take mastery.

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Source: https://www.dictionary.com/e/memes/hello-darkness-my-old-friend/