Elvis "He's White" Clip
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About
Elvis "He's White" Clip is a scene from Baz Luhrmann's 2022 film Elvis in which Tom Hanks' character, Colonel Tom Parker, is informed by Jimmie Rodgers (played by Kodi Smith-McPhee) that Elvis Presley is a white man, causing him to apparently begin considering him as a marketable artist. The 30-second clip features only the line "he's white" spoken three times with different inflections. Once the viral video was posted to social media in August 2022, it was widely joked about for its over-the-top editing and used in parodies in which people gave the clip humorous captions as a reaction video and GIF meme format.
Origin
In Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, released June 24th, 2022,[1] Tom Hanks plays Elvis Presley's real-life manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Early in the film, Parker is told that Elvis is white, which apparently makes him begin to consider the commercial potential of the singer. The clip was uploaded to Twitter by user @duddersj[2] on August 9th, 2022, gaining over 12,000 retweets and 153,000 likes in one day (shown below).
THE ELVIS “HE’S WHITE??” CLIP FINALLY DROPPED pic.twitter.com/lwMABts7ox
— fahrenheit periodt (@duddersj) August 9, 2022
Spread
The clip was quickly celebrated and joked about for what was perceived as over-the-top editing on Luhrmann's part following the upload on August 9th, 2022. For example, Twitter user @Horse_jeans[3] pointed out that there were 14 cuts between the second and third reading of "He's white," gaining over 50 retweets and 260 likes in one day (shown below, left). Twitter user @della_morte_[4] also commented that the scene was proof Baz Luhrmann nails the concept of "camp" better than any other big budget director, gaining over 30 retweets and 330 likes in 12 hours (shown below, right).
Many users parodied the scene on August 9th, typically in one of two ways. One way saw users adding humorous captions to the scene, joking about how other groups would react upon learning a subject is white. For example, user @rickdank_o posted the video with the caption, "The CNN newsroom when a mass shooter has been identified," gaining over 100 retweets and 1,800 likes in one day (shown below, top). Others parodied the clip by inserting music from white artists over the audio of Elvis singing. One popular example was posted by user @mikeykolberg, who inserted music from Chet Hanks, Tom Hanks' actual son. The tweet gained over 920 retweets and 9,300 likes in one day (shown below, bottom).
The CNN newsroom when a mass shooter has been identified pic.twitter.com/lPL9a257jB
— adult contemporary man (@rickdank_o) August 10, 2022
he's white?? pic.twitter.com/WT1eWHRorh
— michael kolberg (@mikeykolberg) August 9, 2022
Various Examples
The "HE'S WHITE?" clip from Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis" but with Rick Astley instead. pic.twitter.com/m1s7dHfON1
— Mike Schubert (@Schubes17) August 10, 2022
Boston sports fans at every draft: pic.twitter.com/FTu3d6S84w
— Jarvis (@jarvis_best) August 10, 2022
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