A recent performance by Pedro Pascal became a meme

As the star of two mega-popular TV shows (The last of us And The Mandalorian) and the massive press cycles surrounding those two shows, Pedro Pascal is absolutely everywhere right now. But those aren’t Pascal’s only projects to materialize, as revealed by one of his recent, rather underrated, appearances that sparked a TikTok meme.

Last year Pascal played with Nicolas Cage in The unbearable weight of massive talent, a hugely meta-examination and appreciation of Cage’s long career that came and went rather quickly. In it, Cage plays a fictionalized version of himself who has offered $1 million to attend the birthday party of Javi Gutierrez (Pascal), a billionaire with ties to the gun trade who happens to be a huge Nicolas Cage fan. It tries to be many things at once: a buddy comedy, a spy action film, and a meta-commentary on Cage’s previous film roles and the film they are currently working on. (There is also a Great bit involved paddington 2 that was basically designed for movie twitter.)

About 45 minutes into the film, Javi Cage addresses the script they agreed to work on together. Javi suggests a new approach: instead of staring at screens, they should “open our minds to the infinite possibilities of what the cosmos has to offer”. In this case, that means taking LSD. The next scene shows Cage and Javi driving, both frantic as they try to come up with a character-driven story that’s full of nuance and includes a drug scene.

The original scene plays Jimmy Rushing’s “Blues in the Dark” as the film cuts from Cage reluctantly taking acid on the car ride. They turn towards each other, Cage seems pissed while Javi looks like a kid in a candy store. But it doesn’t represent Cage’s mood in the scene as a whole; When we see a long shot of the duo, they both laugh.

The clip of Cage and Javi looking at each other in the car with completely opposite facial expressions surfaced on TikTok last month, according to Know Your Meme. Instead of the original tune, “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” a Mama Cass song best known in the Lost Season 2 cold open, play instead. Captioned “I tell my friend the same thing for the 20th time in the same day,” reads Javi’s smile as someone was almost marginalized by repeated actions.

@gh0uliasux I forget that very quickly // #pedopascal #nicolascage #theunbearableweightofmassivetalent #bf ♬ Original sound – ghoulia

Videos using the two very different reactions to illustrate a hodgepodge of situations took over TikTok and the landing page for Make Your Own Kind of Music. Some of the examples were on the sillier side, such as B. @chip2ner, who put Mario and Luigi hats on Pascal and Cage while introducing the drama of Mario Kart‘s dreaded blue clam (or beloved, depending on which end you’re on).

@chip2ner Pedro Pascal in Mario Kart #fyp #pedropascal #pedropascaledit #nicholascage #meme #pedropascalmeme #supermario #mariokart ♬ Make your own kind of music – Mama Cass

It’s also quite adept at capturing the breakup when something is shocking to one person but throws another out of phase. Whether it midsummer or involves some kind of trauma, it fits.

@salvy93 #CapCut This has happened in almost every kitchen I’ve worked in #fyp ♬ Make your own kind of music – Mama Cass

@teacherwithahusky Can’t we, Judy? I don’t have the strength for that today..😑 #CapCut #teachersoftiktok #teachersbelike #teachertok #professionaldevelopment ♬ O-Ton – Ms.Writer

@vecerovaj #pedropascal #nicolascage #itiswhatitis #fyp #fypシ #foryoupage #fypage ♬ Make your own kind of music – Mama Cass

Cage is already old hat in the meme treatment, but Pascal is catching up fast. But unlike his other shows, which stack memes that are far more serious in tone, or Pascal loses patience with some of the red carpet questions he’s been asked, the Unbearable weight Meme offers a certain lightness. And if that somehow gets people to watch Unbearable weighteven better.

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