Faith Hilling

About

Faith Hilling is the fake viral trend created by South Park in the episode of the same name, which parodied internet challenges and memes from the early 2010s. In the episode, a meme trend called "Faith Hilling" was known to be an older physical reaction meme, similar to Planking. After the episode's release, Faith Hilling became a reference to the show and forced corporate attempts at understanding internet trends. The name is a reference to American country singer Faith Hill and is performed by pulling on one's shirt near the nipples in a manner that makes it appear as if you have large breasts.

Origin

On March 28th, 2012, the South Park episode titled "Faith Hilling" was released, which featured different looks at early 2010-2012 internet culture and memes. In the show, Faith Hilling is described as an act in which someone, usually a man, pinches their shirt with their two hands and puts their arms outward to give the illusion that they have an unnaturally large chest.

On March 31st, the YouTube channel Eric Cartman^[1] uploaded the scene from the end of the episode in which Cartman does the Faith Hilling trend (shown below). The video received over 177,000 views, 1,500 likes and 150 comments in 12 years.

Spread

Following the release of the episode, Faith Hilling continued to stay a reference to the show itself with people participating in the mock internet trend themselves or making references to it in other memes.

For example, on March 29th, 2012, 9GAG user fyrbyrd^[2] uploaded a Brace Yourselves, Winter Is Coming meme in which Ned Stark is warning the reader about Faith Hilling being on the way (shown below).

In the following years, Faith Hilling proved to remain a reference to the show's usage of the term, with images of Faith Hilling typically being of people unintentionally making the pose.

In March 2022, an anonymous Idlememe^[3] user reuploaded a meme of Faith Hilling in which the original image from South Park is shown next to images of other people Faith Hilling unintentionally, including Kobe Bryant (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References