The Alden Richards Meme: Weird, Oddly Cute, and We Honestly Want More of It
The Alden Richards Meme: Weird, Oddly Cute, and We Honestly Want More of It
Okay, can we talk about this for a second? Because we have been trying to describe the Alden Richards meme for weeks, and the best word we have landed on is: weirdly magnetic. You see the photo — his tongue out, fingers pressed to his forehead, eyes doing something between a squint and a smolder — and your first reaction is “huh???” Then, about three seconds later, you think “okay but actually… I love this so much.” And naturally, you send it straight to your group chat.
That is basically the full meme life cycle right there. Moreover, it hit millions of Filipinos in exactly that order. No one was safe. No group chat was spared.
So Where Did the “Dila” Meme Actually Come From?
Here is the detail that makes this story even more fun: the photo is from 2018. That is right — years before it spread across TikTok and became the trend of 2025, Alden Richards took a photoshoot where he stuck his tongue out and pressed his fingers to his forehead. After the shoot, the image quietly sat on the internet for years without much notice. Then, as if the entire country had a slow delayed reaction, it suddenly caught fire out of nowhere.
Alden confirmed this himself when the topic came up during GMA’s anniversary special. According to him, the photo was taken three or four years before it went viral, and he was genuinely caught off guard when it started trending. “Nagulat na lang ako, all of a sudden, it became a trend sa TikTok and social media,” he said. In addition, he admitted he still does not fully understand why it blew up when it did — which honestly makes the whole thing even better.
Why the Timing Makes It Even Funnier
Think about it: most viral memes have a clear trigger. Someone posts something new, it gets shared fast, and the trend takes off right away. The Alden Richards dila meme, however, skipped that step entirely. Instead, it quietly waited for years. Then one day TikTok decided it was time, and the rest became history. That slow-burn delayed takeoff is a big part of what makes the whole thing so charming and strange.
The TikTok Trend That Followed
Once the photo resurfaced, it did not take long for TikTok to turn it into a full participation trend. The format was simple and easy to copy: stick your tongue out, touch your forehead, and set it to Skusta Clee’s “Kung Tayo” (some versions used “Kalimutan Ka” instead). As a result, the responses were funny, chaotic, and endlessly varied. P-pop star Sheena Catacutan of BINI joined in early. Ordinary people from all walks of Filipino life followed shortly after. Before long, the meme had become a personality test, a reaction format, and its own visual language all at once.
So what did Alden do when he found out the whole country was copying his face? Rather than cringe about it quietly, he did what only someone with real confidence and a good sense of humor would do: he out-memed himself. Specifically, he posted a TikTok where he used the pose to rate Filipino dishes — the further the tongue, the better the food. Adobo got the full treatment. Sinigang too. Bulalo, on the other hand, got a more restrained response. The video racked up over 7 million views. On top of that, he later switched his Instagram profile picture to an animated version of the meme. The man fully committed, and fans loved him even more for it.
Why This Particular Meme Hit Different
To be clear, not all celebrity memes work this well. What makes the Alden Richards meme stand out is, first of all, that the pose is just genuinely strange in the best possible way. There is no clear context for it. He is not reacting to something. He is not mid-sentence either. He is simply… doing that. Tongue out, forehead touch, eyes doing their thing. Because of that mystery, it is the kind of image your brain keeps coming back to — it simply refuses to be fully explained.
The second reason it worked so well is that Alden himself was a total good sport about the whole thing. Many celebrities would quietly cringe at something like this and hope it dies down. Instead, Alden went full meme king mode. His willingness to laugh at himself — to make that TikTok, to lean into the weirdness — makes him feel far more relatable than many polished celebrity personas. That honesty is rare, and fans noticed it immediately.
The Meme King Meets the Box Office King
What makes this story even more interesting is that all of this meme chaos happened right in the middle of one of Alden’s biggest career chapters. While his tongue-out photo was being copied across TikTok, he was also making his directorial debut with Out of Order — a courtroom drama that he produced, directed, and starred in. Furthermore, the film made it to the Da Nang Asian Film Festival in Vietnam. At the same time, he was hosting Stars on the Floor on GMA. By any measure, he was having a very serious and ambitious professional moment.
Even so, the internet chose to celebrate him through his silliest photoshoot from 2018. Rather than fight it, he let both things be true at once — meme king and film director, tongue out and creative vision. That balance takes a very specific kind of confidence. Specifically, it takes someone who can hold their own joke and their own career goals without letting either one cancel the other out.
Honestly, we want more of this energy from Filipino celebrities. We want more moments where the star turns out to be the funniest person in the room about their own meme. We also want more weird photoshoot poses that become TikTok trends years later, more “nagulat na lang ako” origin stories, and more dish ratings delivered through a range of tongue expressions. At the very least, can someone please convince him to do a Part 2 that covers street food? Because isaw absolutely deserves the full tongue. We fully believe in this vision.
The Cultural Weight of a Weird Photo
Yes, we are aware that we are talking at length about a guy sticking his tongue out. However, the Alden Richards meme is actually a near-perfect example of how Filipino internet culture operates. First, there is the delayed virality — the fact that something old can suddenly become the biggest thing online. Second, there is the group participation — everyone adding their own version, their own forehead-and-tongue take. Third, and perhaps most importantly, there is the celebrity goodwill angle — Alden’s warm and funny response to the whole thing made fans trust him more, not less.
On top of all that, consider this: somewhere in 2018, a photographer said “okay, do something fun” and Alden Richards made a face that would go on to entertain millions of people years later. That is actually kind of beautiful, in the most chaotic Filipino-internet way possible. And really, that is the only way that matters.
In the meantime, we will be over here rewatching his dish rating TikTok and pushing hard for a Part 2 that covers street food. After all, isaw deserves the full tongue treatment. We stand by this completely.
