How the Trisha Paytas War Meme ignited a battle with My Chemical Romance fans

7:34 AM CST on January 24, 2025

image of the Trisha Paytas War Meme. — @blndsundoll4mj/YouTube

The Trisha Paytas War Memes use imagery from the artist's "Van Gogh" music video featuring a soldier screaming (Paytas) to joke about superficial "wars" they face. The music video pays heavy homage to My Chemical Romance's "The Ghost of You" and is part of Paytas' SadBoy2005 project. The emo and pop-punk-inspired side band was a project Paytas pursued from 2020 to 2022.

Meme basics:

Meme Creator: @trishlikesfish88/TikTok
Meme Type: Exploitable, Reaction
First Appearance: August 2021
Origin Source: TikTok
Peak Popularity: January 2025

Origin of the Trisha Paytas War Meme

In 2021, Trisha Paytas' emo project, SadBoy2005, filmed a video for their track "Van Gogh." SadBoy2005 is a side band Paytas takes part in alongside YouTuber Social Repose, singer-songwriter Jeremy Thurber, and producer rapper Connor Musarra.

The project existed, in part, to pay homage to some of the pop-punk and emo acts of the early aughts that inspired Paytas. It combined original lyrics with some of the sounds that are nostalgic for millennials.

The video for "Van Gogh" was a recreation of My Chemical Romance's "The Ghost Of You," released in October 2009.

Paytas meme'd the video from the jump, sharing a behind-the-scenes clip on TikTok and captioning the video, "Me when Wendy's cancelled their spicy chicken nuggs."

trisha paytas sadboy2005 van gogh war meme

Cultural context

The close recreation, self-funded by the content creator, was a subject of debate. Paytas fans and members of the My Chemical Romance fandom felt particularly torn.

Some didn't know the reference and thought Paytas chose quite a theatric and emotional music video.

trisha paytas war meme tweet that reads "every time i see this gif i wonder if people know it’s trisha paytas recreating a mcr mv"

While some were impressed with how closely Paytas recreated the cinematic music video on a budget, others thought it was less of an homage and more of a rip-off of the original. MCR fans unfamiliar with Paytas were not happy with the video.

reddit comment about trisha paytas war meme that reads "Idk how I feel about this, I’m glad that this video had such an impact on Trisha that they want to pay tribute to it in some capacity but I also don’t think a shot-for-shot remake can really be considered a tribute"

trisha paytas war meme reaction that reads "I usually love fanworks, one of my favourite is a fanvideo for the song Sleep, but it's not what they are doing here, it's plagiarism, Their previous video didn't bother me this much, because famous last word part weren't all their video (it was still a weird tribute), but this is just copying Ghost of you video to promote their own song, It's sad they can't make their musical career without heavily relying on someone else work"

Paytas has spoken out about getting hate from MCR fans. The hate isn't just about the video, but also related to other instances where Paytas cosplayed Gerard Way. Paytas acknowledges that they've gotten a lot of backlash for what they say is genuine fandom.

trisha paytas war comment that reads "I'm so proud of Trisha for continuing to do the shit she loves despite all the haters. Not only is she living the dream and recreating her teenage fantasies through her music videos but she gets to work with so many amazing creative people while also creating jobs in such trying times. I'm sure all the people involved are super grateful for the opportunity to work in these fun productions"

Meme spread

The comments on Paytas' post were met with more memes, particularly relating to their screaming moment in the video.

trisha paytas war meme that reads "shane dawson's cat when he sees him coming"

trisha paytas war meme that reads "when wendys won't let you send your application for the 14th time"

trisha paytas war meme that reads "When starbucks is out of refreshers"

In August 2022, @ruddruddreact shared the meme on Twitter, getting thousands of reactions.

reaction videos shares trisha paytas war meme

People quoted the reaction and started sharing more memes about the moments that felt like battles, which were as widely varied as the X users behind them.

trisha paytas war meme "me on the frontlines fighting for americory rn #BB25"

Meme examples

trisha paytas war meme tiktok that reads "when the whole squad is down except you but you're the one who always has to be revived"

trisha paytas war meme that reads "Trying to convince the husband we should get icecream tonight and I'm losing the discussion"

trisha paytas war meme "Joking because this would actually be us when they told us the vape rations were too low"

trisha paytas war meme "when your emotional support vape starts blinking"

trisha paytas war meme "in the trenches of the culture war"

trisha paytas war meme that reads "the queen in the purgatory battlefield fighting for her life to not be reincarnated as trisha paytas’s baby"

trisha paytas war meme tiktok with "me rn in the idgaf wars"

trisha paytas war meme that reads "how it feels tweeting about stuff no one gaf about"

More Trisha Paytas memes:

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Angela Andaloro

Angela Andaloro proudly serves as a scribe, documenting all the shenanigans happening online. Her writing has been featured across Entertainment Weekly, PEOPLE, BuzzFeed, and more.