I Am Ballin', I Am Faded

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About

I Am Ballin', I Am Faded refers to a series of memes set to the song "Duvet" by Bôa that misrepresent the lyrics "I am falling, I am fading," as "I am ballin', I am faded," often presented over footage of people or anime characters, particularly from the series Lain, dancing or playing basketball. The memes are comparable to other "ballin'" memes like I'm ballin' and he will never be ballin' and first appeared on YouTube as early as November 2020, becoming further popularized in 2023 on YouTube and TikTok.

Origin

On November 27th, 2020, YouTuber^[1] Matthew Miskiewicz posted a video set to the song "Duvet" by Bôa^[2] where the lyrics "I am falling, I am fading," play over two image macros featuring Lain from the anime series Lain. The first image shows Lain with a basketball captioned, "I am ballin'," meaning you're playing basketball and the second shows Lain smirking, captioned, "I am faded," meaning they are high or drunk. The video (shown below) gained over 70,000 views in three years and was reposted on December 29th by YouTuber^[3] Mazoku. The video gained over 1.5 million views in three years.

Spread

The song and its misrepresented lyrics became the increasing subject of memes over the following years, picking up significantly in 2023. On April 12th TikToker^[4] @komikarage reposted the original YouTube video, garnering over 60,000 views in seven months. On April 28th, YouTuber^[4] The Kally posted an extended version of the original meme, garnering over 206,000 views in seven months. On June 4th, TikToker^[5] @skulsy posted a new version of the meme that gained over 200,000 views in five months (shown below).

@skulsy lain my beloved #overwatch #overwatch2 #ow2 #overwatchedit #overwatchclips #lain #serialexperimentslain #pluh #pluh🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥 ♬ Lain – 秉节

On June 9th and August 18th, YouTubers^[6]^[7] step_sis and Edgar Bro posted versions of the meme, the former garnering over 109,000 views in five months and the latter garnering over 111,000 views in three months (shown below, left and right).

On August 31st, TikToker^[8] @choccycosplays posted a video dancing to the song, garnering over 200,000 views in three months (shown below).

@choccycosplays I am balln’. I am Faded. #serialexpirementslain #iwakuralain #lain #lainpilled #clearpilled #lainpilledfemcel #laincosplay #femcel #femcelcore #pajamalain #cosplay #matrix #cringe #meme #iamballingiamfaded #ballin #anime #serialexperimentslaincosplay #god #real #shenaningans ♬ original sound – KomiKage