This TikTok meme imagines getting 'snapped' by Thanos when the Avengers lost in 'Infinity War'

• A Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) event known as the "Snap" is the basis of a new TikTok trend.
• In the MCU, the "Snap" erased half of the life in the universe for five years.
• The TikTok meme features videos imagining what it was like for ordinary people to disappear.

In the years since "Avengers: Infinity War" premiered in 2018, subsequent entries into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) have grappled with the ramifications of what's come to be known as the "Snap" - the extermination of half of all life in the universe brought about by supervillain Thanos.

Now, a new TikTok meme explores what it would actually be like to be one of those who temporarily disappeared.

The "Snap" happens during "Avengers: Infinity War" when Thanos manages to defeat the Avengers using the power of the infinity stones - artifacts imbued with reality-bending power. When Thanos snaps his fingers with all infinity stones on his hand, in an instant, billions of people and life forms disappear. What the MCU then refers to as the "Blip" takes place when those people return during the continuity of "Avengers: Endgame," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told Fandango in 2019.

The new TikTok meme is concentrated using the "Thanos snapped" sound, which was uploaded by TikTok user @goshuajonzalez. That user also appears to have created the meme itself, which is relatively simple: users create point-of-view TikToks setting up certain scenarios. When a reverberating yell sounds, the image goes blurry, signifying the moment that the Avengers lose and Thanos snaps his fingers. Users obtain the blurred image effect using TikTok's built-in "Ghosted" filter.

The meme has its origins in another viral video from user @oh_mosheh, who posted a TikTok video on March 10 commentating on the dryness of Popeyes' biscuits, something Popeyes itself has joked about on its social channels in the past. In @oh_mosheh's original TikTok, a voice says "Ooh, Popeyes biscuits" as the camera shows a biscuit, and then a hand reaching towards a drink before the image fades and the camera falls. The sound from that video has been used for Thanos "Snap" memes.

The first few meme videos from @goshuajonzales, posted on March 19 and 20, use that Popeyes sound, while subsequent entries use the "Thanos snapped" sound, which features the yell but not the biscuits line. From that point on, @goshuajonzales began posting several "Thanos snapped" videos, before others began to pick up on the trend.

The meme, while obviously humorous, builds on fertile ground in the MCU. Post-"Avengers: Endgame" films and television series have explored the implications of the so-called "Blip," including "Spider-Man: Far From Home," "Wandavision," and most recently, "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier." Naturally, those portrayals have focused on the franchise's important characters. This TikTok meme contextualizes the event within the average person's life and what could have been interrupted by Thanos' villainy.

The "Snap" was one of the most weighty events to take place across the entire MCU. The new TikTok meme plays off of the event with some much-needed levity.