“Riley it okay I’m Joy” is a spam comment on TikTok referencing a response to a viral video by a user who resembles Riley from Inside Out 2. A TikToker who originally had the word “joy” in their username left this comment after many others remarked that the person in the video looks like this character, claiming to be the emotion called Joy, which was found to be amusing.
The comment is now appearing on various other posts on the social media platform and new videos are popping up referencing the brief, grammatically incorrect copypasta.
What does ‘Riley it okay I’m joy’ mean?
This odd statement began simply as a spam comment, or a comment that people post over and over again on various videos relating to a theme. The original comment was a joke about the appearance of a TikTok user in a video unrelated to Inside Out 2, and people found it so funny that it became a meme.
It was meant as a facetious reassurance to the user who appeared unhappy in her video and as a reference to the character Joy.
‘Riley it okay I’m Joy’ origins
The trend began after TikTok user @neena.hs posted a lip sync video to the Olivia Rodrigo song “jealousy, jealousy,” which was the ninth track from her debut studio album SOUR, released on May 21, 2021. The song is about the unrealistic societal standards placed upon young people, and young women in particular, and how social media makes this harder.
@neena.hs 🧝🏻♀️waiting for you on my Inst: anxiety.xs
♬ original sound – dina☆
The young woman in the TikTok video that resulted in the meme, posted on June 26, 2024, therefore looks rather upset and emotional while she lip-syncs to the track. Coincidentally, at least according to many commenters, she also happens to look similar to Riley from Inside Out, the 2015 Pixar film showing the inner life of personified emotions inside the mind of the character.
One of these emotions, named Joy, represents Riley’s happy and bubbly nature, taking the lead within the team of five different feelings of the pre-teen girl. Sensing distress from the TikTok user, commenter @⭐️⭐️✨✨✨💛joy! said “Riley it okay I’m Joy” on July 7. This comment quickly rose to the top of the list.
Meme spread
In addition to the spam comments, TikTokers began to make video referencing the joke. In early July, someone created @rileyitokimjoy as a dedicated account to the meme and posted its first video showing the original comment on July 3. They’ve since posted 29 additional entries related to “Riley it okay I’m Joy.”
@rileyitokimjoy RILEY IT OKAY IM JOY😁😁😁 #rileyitokimjoy #viral #JOY ♬ Yuh – SophiaYah
The most popular is the one reciting the comment out loud using different voices and various distortions each time, showing equally distorted images of the character Joy as well as the comment itself. This entry gained over 2.3 million views, and people have used the original sound in over 68,000 videos.
Other videos show game characters dressed up as Joy using this sound, footage of people spamming their friends in text messages with the comment, or display bizarre low-quality animations of Riley, Joy, or a combination of the characters.
Examples
Related memes:
- People are brainstorming some new, more adult emotions for ‘Inside Out 3
- The dad from ‘The Incredibles’ is now an incredible new meme
- What does “goofy ahh” mean and where did it come from?
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