Memes / LOONA

Choose your fighter.

LOONA themselves regularly check the ["Stan LOONA"] tag. "We are very much aware of it," says Olivia. "We look up all the videos, covers, and memes on Twitter and Instagram. They're so interesting and fun!" smiles ViVi. Adds Olivia, "When we see international fans write 'Stan Loona,' it gives us a lot of strength. If our fans keep promoting us like that we'll return that kindness by working harder and getting stronger."

— on their Fountain of Memes status (interview via MTV)

From an unknown company (BlockBerry Creative), in just a short amount of time, Girl Group LOONA established itself as a sheer force of Memetic Mutation. Even before their official debut as a group, news sites have written about how "Stan LOONA" became K-Pop's single most inescapable meme. The memes, of course, do not stop there.

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Miscellaneous

• Lots and lots have been written in the journalistic world for the sake of explaining the "Stan LOONA" phenomenon. MTV has described it as omnipresent; SBS Australia called it K-Pop's most inescapable meme.
• BBC stands for Broke Bitch Company.^note Quite the contrary, BBC are if anything very wealthy for such a small team — and became known for music videos whose production screamed "rich as hell". Fans quite loved the variety, flair, and choice in outfits... until the official debut, which saw LOONA attending every one of their live performances in simple crop tops and skirts, indistinguishable from any other girl group. As there followed a long gap between this era and the [xx] era, fans had plenty of time to get exasperated with the never-changing outfits.
• The music video for "So What" ends on kind of a scary note, until you remember that HaSeul wasn't able to be in it. Then, you get a million jokes about how HaSeul leaves for four and a half minutes, only for the sky to be on fire when she gets back.
• The dog barking on "Universe."^note "Universe" from their October 2020 EP 12:00 was an instant fan favorite as well as the most-praised B-side by the members themselves. But then some fans pointed out that there seems to be a faint "WOOF" sound in the background every 2 beats or so, which they have theorized to be from a certain music sample that does indeed feature dogs barking out of nowhere. Naturally, this has become pretty good material for memes about HyunJin and her penchant for suddenly barking as well.
• Orbits are fond of posting certain edits that defy or transcend reason and explanation, like◊ these◊ ones.
• "Girl Front" by the sub-unit ODD EYE CIRCLE (Kim Lip, JinSoul, and Choerry) has earned itself a reputation as that one meme that just won't die. Notable examples where the song is featured include: a remix with the "livin' lavish" video by the infamous "Professor Tox," and a video called "All my brain cells coming together so I can spell 'necessary'". Fittingly enough, a snippet of the song now sits in the TikTok audio library.
• When the Chilean government accused K-Pop fans of being at the forefront of social unrest, LOONA was certainly not spared from the subsequent onslaught of satirical "K-Pop communists" edits that popped up online. Here are edits of LOONA 1/3 holding copies of the Communist Manifesto◊ and Chuu poring over it with Kim Lip◊, for example.
• This one has roots in genuine frustration, but plenty of fans joke about LOONA's overly pale facial makeup rarely matching their real skin tones. The result: their faces looking noticeably lighter than the rest of their bodies. The usual victim is Yves, who also happens to be one of the members with a comparatively dark complexion.
• LOONA's Friendly Fandoms status with ITZY was solidified when a crossover meme of the two groups went viral (LOONA representing how poor kids spend their time, ITZY representing rich kids).
• For many, particularly non-fans, "Hi High" is the song on that one Animal Crossing meme.
• The "#" track "Oh Yes I Am" kick-started another meme, as the background music for compilations of K-Pop groups "versus unfortunate events."
• After Lee SooMan, founder of SM Entertainment and overall a legend of the industry, helped producing the "#" mini-album, LOONA became "SM's adopted cousins".
• LOONA with guns. While fanmade edits had existed in the past, the meme became more prominent after "Not Friends", when the members actually wielded guns in the music video.
• "This instrumental isn't clear; I can still hear ViVi/Go Won/Haseul!" ^note  referring to the small amount of lines they're given during OT12 comebacks.

Member-specific

HeeJin

• HeeJin and Naruto. It went viral in the fandom because of how much the girl loves the anime, but many Orbits have taken it even further by making Crack Pairing edits of HeeJin and her boyfriend Naruto Uzumaki.

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HyunJin

• A video of HyunJin's struggle with a pen during the "Love and Live" era is considered LOONA's first true meme. The footage was splashed across various mainstream meme sites.
• HyunJin's earring commercials and her obsession with bread.
• ''AEONG'', i.e. HyunJin's meowing. So popular it's all she needs to say to send fans into a frenzy.
  Question: Go Won, can you describe HyunJin?
  Go Won: HyunJin is basically a cat.... She always goes "aeong."
• She also loves to bark a lot.

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HaSeul

• HaSeul's Curse^note HaSeul had really bad luck while filming the MV for "Let Me In": freezing weather, rain, the car that was supposed to bring her back to her hotel breaking down in the middle of nowhere. Whenever something bad happens during the filming of other MVs, the editors put her song as background music.
• No context needed.◊
• "Seal~!"
• What became the longest take out of all of LOONA TV has fully taken on a life of its own ever since she came back.

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YeoJin

• LOONA were performing for Idol Radio, but their studio didn't have a big enough room for a proper twelve-girl performance. YeoJin is usually on the far left here, but didn't have room/time to move there, resulting in this absolutely priceless moment that has reached memetic status.
• Fans concerned that the younger members may be over-sexualized can find solidarity in JinSoul's absolutely golden, utterly disgusted reaction to YeoJin attempting to sexy-dance◊.
• YeoJin squatting in a photoshoot taken during the [&] era was met with a variety of confused comments as to why she was there, followed by edits depicting her in even scarier locations.

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ViVi

• ViVi's priceless, reaction pic-worthy faces, like this classic.◊

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Kim Lip

• Kim Lip, short for Kimberly Lippington.
• Kim Lip's "tired mom" pose. A Blink-and-You-Miss-It moment from a Loona Kick clip, Orbits wasted no time associating Kim Lip with a suburban soccer mom. Even better, the girls are well aware of it and lost their minds laughing at it when they saw it.
• "Eclipse" making it to a NASA playlist is perennially a bragging point for Orbits.
• Although Kim Lip's symoblic animal is an owl, most Orbits sometimes consider her to be a pterodactyl.
• "Rap? No no no~"
• "Hulaaa danseu! HULAAA!"^note A particularly memorable part of LOONA's whisper challenge, featuring a shrieking Kim Lip losing her grip on reality.

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JinSoul

• JinSoul dropped her head on a table during a V-Live. Hard. Remixes ensued.
  • It also wasn't the first time.^note This was shown during the LOONATIC MV, which showed behind-the-scenes footage from the Odd Eye Circle subunit's videos.
• "Picasso is in danger..."^note A hilarious line said by Jinsoul about Yves' painting on a LoonaTV episode. Orbits promptly took it and ran away with it.
  [One of the top comments under the episode] Jinsoul: Funny how Picasso hasn't done anything since Yves painted this...
• JinSoul peeking out of a building on the set of "Love Cherry Motion."◊
• In April 2020, JinSoul made LOONA history as the first member to have recorded and released a full-length song outside the group's endeavors. Said song, "As Time Goes", showcases JinSoul's powerful and emotional vocals; charted internationally; and earned unanimous praise. But in the first few hours, Orbits had a struggle: plenty of confused fans accidentally purchased copies of April's JinSol's song on the same soundtrack instead, due to sharing the same name. JinSol's track is titled "I Was Wrong," so the hilarious Irony of this and the fact that Orbits accidentally spent money on the wrong song was not lost on social media.
• JinSoul gradually realizing who her target audience is.

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Choerry

• Fans reacting to "Love Cherry Motion"... then the beat drop comes along. In general, the song is used in quite a few notable memes, like a clip of a rat seemingly resurrecting from death.
• Choerry's pet cockroach.◊
• Choerry's Celebrity Resemblance to SISTAR's Bora is so strong that even predebut, people have been coming up with (lighthearted) theories about this Choerry person actually being Bora's Paper-Thin Disguise. To be fair, there's quite a bit of coincidental information ripe for tinfoil-hatting. For example: Choerry's birthday is on the same day as SISTAR's anniversary, and Choerry debuted just as SISTAR officially disbanded.
• CHOERRY ISN'T JUST A STAR. SHE'S THE BRIGHTEST STAR THAT LIGHTS UP THE UNIVERSE.^note THE BADDEST WOMAN THAT HAS EVER WALKED ON EARTH SHE’S ON HER OWN LEAGUE SHE DIDNT COME TO TAKE PART SHE CAME TO TAKE OVER. SHE IS CHOERRY REMEMBER HER NAME. CHOERRY THE BEST! (LOONA read comments left on their [12:00] photos, and this was one that Choerry read. Tt's a copypasta now.)

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Yves

• Yves was the first person to choke Sasuke.

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Chuu

• For the members, Chuu's "Heart Attack" dance. She taught it to everyone.
• Chuu's apple/hamburger heart (where one first pretends to take a bite of food, then makes a heart)◊ has taken on a life of its own. As a result, however, a lot of people who do it have no idea that Chuu was its inventor. Thankfully, she did get some well-earned recognition from TWICE's DaHyun at the 2020 Idol Star Athletics Championship and from a reality show as the meme's origin.
• Chuu's impression of a clip from an "Inuyasha" episode used as a meme in Korea became incredibly popular due to just how identical her voice sounds to the original clip!
  • The popularity of the clip ultimately ended up with Chuu meeting the original voice actress herself, Jung Mi-sook, for a Chuu Can Do It episode!

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Go Won

• The description for "love4eva" had... interesting descriptors for the voices of the yyxy members. As soon as fans got a hold of it, they never let go of Go Won and her "crunchy" voice. "Crunchy" is now used to affectionately refer to Go Won and the things she does.
• Go Won being appointed by Grimes as the godmother of her and Elon Musk's baby. Yes, really.^note Well, it's probably a joke, but Grimes actually did say yes to a comment asking if Go Won is the godmother. Grimes collaborated with the yyxy girls on "love4eva" and Musk revealed himself to be the planet's most unexpected Orbit in 2018, so both absolutely do know who Go Won is.
• kim hyunjin barks jeon heejin aww^note Go Won read this comment out loud while doing an advertisement for a convenience store.

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Olivia Hye

• Olivia Hye rolling into your bias list^note In the dance for "Egoist" there's a move that has Olivia doing a backwards somersault on the floor. It doesn't appear in the music video, only on Loona TV, and the fans were stunned by it.
• The One Day Trainee^note Technically, Son Hyejoo only trained for one day under BBC before debuting as Olivia Hye. Fans have fun using this fact to declare her the greatest kpop idol ever, even when they know that this is technically not true (she only trained at Blockberry Creative for one day—all of the yyxy members were scouted from idols already heavily trained under other labels. Olivia is not the first iteration of this—before the One Day Trainee, there was the Three Week Trainee (Yves).
• Olivia Hye's triangle mouth. (Simply refers to her incredibly prominent mouth shape, which she and the other members compare to an inverted triangle. Hasn't stopped her from being one of the most conventionally beautiful members, still.)
• Olivia Hye didn't need to burn the moon...she is the moon herself.

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