About

Red Light, Green Light refers to a series of memes inspired by the deadly version of the titular children's game from the 2021 South Korean survival drama series Squid Game in which a creepy-looking doll shoots participants who fail to stand still. Following the viral popularity of the show in September 2021, videos in which users imitated playing the game gained spread, particularly on TikTok. In Roblox, user-created games inspired by the TV show's game also went viral.

Origin

On September 17th, 2021, the South Korean survival drama series Squid Game premiered on Netflix.^[1] In the first episode, titled "Red Light, Green Light," of the series, 456 strangers are forced to compete in a deadly version of the children's game "Red Light Green Light." During the game, a giant doll commands "green light" and "red light" to the participants, who must run to the finish line during the "green light" and stand still during the "red light." The doll scans the participants during "red light," shooting anyone who moves (scene shown below).

Spread

On September 20th, 2021, TikToker^[2] yovincaprafika posted a clip in which she pretended to play the game, using footage of the real-life doll placed at a shopping center in Manila, Philippines. The video used a Korean audio clip from the episode in which the doll says "green light, red light." The video received over 44.5 million views and 2.6 million likes in 10 days (shown below).

Starting on that day, users on TikTok reused the audio clip to create their versions of the video, pretending to be participants of the game. For example, a video filmed by TikToker^[3] viprawr near the real-life doll received over 123.4 million views and 11.4 million likes (shown below, left). On September 22nd, TikToker^[4] @queenmab901 posted a video that gained over 9.4 million views and 1.4 million likes in one week (shown below, center). On the same day, TikToker^[5] @adriandanosaur posted a clip that gained over 3.3 million views and 483.1 likes in one week (shown below, right).

Roblox Version

In multiplayer video game Roblox, several fan-made versions of the game were created by users in late September 2021.^[6] On September 25th, TikToker^[7] @junelldominic posted a gameplay video of one such game, with the post gaining over 62.5 million views and 7.4 million likes in one week (shown below, left).

Creepy Doll Dancing

On September 26th, 2021, TikToker^[8] @punyabenk posted a 3D animation of the doll dancing, with the video gaining over 53.1 million views and 5.3 million likes in five days (shown below).

The animation gained viral popularity as source material for memes, with users setting it to various songs. For example, on September 28th, 2021, Twitter^[9] user @nonStopKSoo_ posted the video set to "Paradise" by EXO. The post received over 153,000 views, 5,200 retweets and 12,900 likes in roughly 24 hours (shown below).

Squid game doll dancing to EXO’s Paradise 😂 pic.twitter.com/8oGkIg8Wu5

— RYE 🐧🌹 (@nonStopKSoo_) September 28, 2021

External References