Charlie Kirk Face-Swap Memes Are Taking Over the Internet

Charlie Kirk may have passed away weeks ago, but online, his face is experiencing a second, much weirder life. Across TikTok, X, Instagram, and even random NBA meme pages, Kirk’s likeness keeps popping up in places no one asked for: stitched onto rappers, plastered on album covers, and warped into reaction GIFs. This strange occurrence has become known as the Kirkification.

The trend kicked off in late September, shortly after the right-wing pundit’s death, when a X user posted Kirk’s face onto the “IShowSpeed Smiling Trying Not to Laugh” meme. 

That post garnered almost 100,000 likes and set the stage for Kirkification to erupt across the internet. TikTok comment sections became overrun with deepfakes of Kirk’s face, often deployed with no context. Suddenly, he was everywhere: edited onto the body of NBA YoungBoy, appearing on a fake Drake cover, and slapped onto every Michael Jordan crying meme imaginable.

Some TikTok users are as bewildered as they are entertained. 

“Charlie Kirk probably died in the worst generation to die in,” one user said. “I never seen anybody get memed like this. Every single comment section I go in I see a deepfake of his face. Imagine you live your whole life, pass away, and this is your legacy.”