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The cat is wearing a yellow wig. From the bottom corner of the frame, a small plastic hand, attached to an index finger, came and stroked the orange cat’s bearded muzzle. The video then cuts to a cat wearing a black wig and scarf; The accompanying dub says, “I’m walking out of the bedroom. He slapped me in the face, and I said, ‘Johnny, you hit me. You just hit me. “” I’ve been avoiding this video for days, ever since read about it in Rolling Stone. It is reported to have received millions of views on TikTok but then disappeared. However, it did have, in the carousel of my recommendations of Instagramwhere the algorithm discovered I liked cat videos — but it’s not that I disliked social media taunts about allegations of domestic abuse.
Since the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard began in April, a certain kind of stan culture has formed around it. Depp is suing Heard for $50 million, claiming that an op-ed she wrote for washington articles about being “a figurehead of domestic abuse” that damaged his reputation and career. (The footage doesn’t mention the actor by name.) Depp has denied the charges, and the jury in their trial is also considering a protest suit from Heard. As the case comes to a conclusion, scenes from the courtroom have spread on social networks, especially on TikTok, where users reenact or mock the testimony given. The audio in that cat clip is from Heard’s testimony. Again videoshowing Heard on a stand, overlaid with a video of Kim Kardashian on Saturday night live said “very tight.” It currently has more than 5 million likes.
Fandom often alternates with celebrity trials, returning to the throngs of supporters who were present in Santa Barbara, California, to support Michael Jackson in 2005. In some cases, attention brought to the public’s attention stories that were overlooked, like Britney Spears’ conservatorship, changed thanks to #FreeBritney Movement. But there’s something particularly unsettling about the eye-catching branding that emerged from the Depp/Heard test. It’s one thing to support a celebrity embroiled in a legal case, it’s quite another to make memes mock someone who is claiming they were hit by a partner.
Internet commentary thrives on difficult topics, and TikTok is no exception. (And, for what it’s worth, TikTok has Reportedly removed some videos use audio of Heard’s testimony.) People mock politics and politicians on all sides of the issue. But using this instance in particular as fodder for replay and response video to get clicks seems particularly egregious, perhaps because it appears to be targeted at a person or situation. , instead of a larger topic and dozens of weighted voices. While most of the mockery seems to be aimed at Heard (a disturbing twist in the trend), both she and Depp are claiming damages for themselves and their lives in this case, as so there’s too much to ask, like Guardians did this weekto “treat a bleak problem bleakly”?
A lot of the controversy surrounding the trial stemmed from the fact that Depp’s supporters wanted the actor to get his fair share, and thus tried to discredit Heard. But as Cut wrote, “No matter how damning the evidence may be in court, social media will tell a different story,” with Instagram memes and YouTube comments purporting to frame Depp as a victim. and Heard is a performing actor. The case will ultimately be decided by a jury, but meanwhile, the hashtag #justiceforjohnnydepp on TikTok has had more than 10 billion views; hashtag #justiceforamberheard has a more modest 39 million. After years of #MeToo, here’s “a woman recounting in painful detail how a hugely popular man allegedly abused her,” pointed out The Cut’s Claire Lampen. “Why, in 2022, do so many people seem to hate her for that?”
Part of the answer may lie in the fact that although the Internet does not forget, it has a rose-tinted memory. When you’re famous, those who love you can choose to remember your role in But the pirate of the Caribbean and ignore everything else. It can also remind you that you were once married to someone they admired and forgot that you are one. There seems to be a deep misconception — and deep distrust of women who are generally abused — in the treatment of Heard on social media. But in addition to that, there is another message: Those who come forward will not be trusted and are also likely to be ridiculed. Online life can make celebrities appear only in the forms we want to see them. It makes them unreal. It could turn Depp into a bully, and Heard’s tearful testimony is nothing more than a TikTok sound. It’s a trend no one needs.
