ABC’s hospital drama The Good Physician has been airing since 2017, however the present has all of the sudden caught the eye of the web after a memorable scene went viral on TikTok, inspiring a surge of weird memes.

The titular “good physician” is Dr. Sean Murphy (Freddie Highmore), an autistic surgeon with savant syndrome, with Highmore delivering a really theatrical efficiency. The present has been criticized for its one-note portrayal of autism as a incapacity “superpower,” a reductive trope which works again to Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man.

On TikTok, followers of the present earnestly put up scenes from the collection, which inadvertently sparked an ironic fandom who discovered the present humorous, because the scenes started to “leak” exterior of the actual fanbase. Out of context, many clips come throughout as amusingly melodramatic, due to the present’s soapy sentimentalism, and Highmore’s depth.

One significantly memorable scene went viral, exhibiting a teary-eyed Highmore screaming, “I’m a surgeon!” to Dr. Jackson Han (Daniel Dae Kim).

Within the scene, Dr. Han is anxious that Murphy’s social awkwardness is likely to be a legal responsibility, and seeks to excluded him from a tumor elimination surgical procedure, prompting a particularly emotional response from Murphy; one TikTok put up of the scene collected greater than 19 million views.

After going viral, the scene underwent a collection of more and more surreal edits, with TikTokers including hallucinogenic distortion and laser eyes, or changing “surgeon” with “sturgeon,” and “SpongeBob.”

From there, the scene unfold to Twitter, the place customers broke the scene down into extra conventional memes, utilizing screencaps and humorous photograph edits, with many celebrating Dr. Han’s stoic response.

Dr. Han’s composure immediately sparked one thing of a fandom; even in a medical melodrama, Daniel Dae Kim simply can’t assist being cool.

Finally, the 2 characters have been absorbed into the archetypal “Virgin vs. Chad” meme.

Very like the gleefully misplaced enthusiasm of the Morbius meme, the enjoyable comes from not understanding the context of the scene, with most customers having by no means seen the present and assuming that Highmore’s efficiency is all the time aggressively dialed up.

Others expressed bafflement that the present was so well-liked, however handed below the radar of the extraordinarily on-line; there’s a complete different world of tv on the market.

The meme appeared to go viral at document pace; what started in earnest led to irony, and may have already got burned out; The Good Physician, nonetheless, might need simply attracted some new followers, in search of to mine the present for content material.