After a tangible decline in quality and quantity, rom-coms are back.
Recent films like Rye Lane, The Lost City, and Bros helped revived the genre and switched up the rom-com archetypes. But the stereotypical female lead in rom-coms and indie films is still so ingrained in pop culture, which is one reason Delaney Rowe’s “insufferable female lead” TikToks have people obsessed. (And, alternately, cringing and threatening to block her because they are so accurate.)
Rowe, who has more than 1.6 million followers, has done several parodies of film and TV tropes, like the coming-of-age movie and that one horror movie character. But it’s her “indie movie girl” TikToks that are eliciting the strongest response. In this video, she gets compared to both Debby Ryan and Jennifer Lawrence.
@delaneysayshello Wanna know a secret?
♬ original sound – Delaney Rowe
One viral TikTok posted last week, which has more than 16 million views, features Rowe walking down the chip aisle at the grocery store and comparing people to chips in the cutest, most infuriating way. She has the timing, delivery, and lip-bite down. “Yeah I did this in public,” Rowe says in the comments.
The comment section offered a common response: “anyways thank you queen this was an excruciating watch.”
@delaneysayshello Its always salt & vin and never honey dijon ya kno
♬ original sound – Delaney Rowe
There are multiple stitches with that TikTok, and many of them echo the “excruciating” comments. One person says they had to turn away while watching. One stitch was just sounds of distress.
Others took it further: “The fact that I feel this way lets me know that she has done her job,” says @philip_townsend. “This bitch is an actress. But I find her videos so painful and insufferable to watch that I’m getting to the point where I have to block her.”
@philip_townsend #stitch with @delaneysayshello ♬ original sound – Philip
@calypso.bluu2 #stitch with @delaneysayshello like good on you, sis! 😂 very insufferable LOL #viral #fyp ♬ original sound – Calypso
Rowe’s videos were also posted to Twitter, where they got even more views, though people seemed a little less triggered by her insufferable TikToks there.
So why are Rowe’s female lead TikToks hitting so accurately? We reached out for comment, but on an earlier TikTok captioned “Every indie movie trailer that tells you absolutely nothing about the plot,” one commenter kind of got at why: “that’s because the plot doesn’t matter, it’s about vibes.” Or, it could be that Rowe has so throughly embodied this character we all know that it’s uncanny.
