The history of the ‘Queen Never Cry’ meme

If you’re feeling sad, just remember: queen never cry.

2024 has been a good year for memes. Some of my favorites include Dress to Impress’ Pose 28, the adorable Thai pygmy hippo Moo Deng, and Kamala Harris’s “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” Of course, we can’t forget the iconic “You swan, he frog.” However, 2024 is far from over, and users on X (formerly Twitter) have discovered another quotable meme: “Queen never cry.”

While funny on its own, most people have no idea where the meme is from. Here’s everything we know about the “Queen never cry” meme.

Where is the ‘Queen never cry’ meme from?

The “Queen never cry” meme originated from the manhwa The Ki Sisters, available on Webtoon. In the panel, a mother rocking a “resting bitch face” and crossed arms sits on a hospital bed, with nurses handing her a crying, newborn baby. Instead of taking her daughter, the new mother whispers “Queen never cry,” in her ear. The baby immediately stops crying and locks in. She dons the same expression as her mother and haughtily crosses her arms, even holding her head up independently.

The panel first made the rounds online after Reddit user u/OriginalAlberto shared it to the subreddit r/manhwa. There, he revealed he found the “ridiculous” panel on Discord and asked people on the thread where the scene was from.

The ‘Queen never cry’ panel achieves viral meme status

The panel achieved meme status when it was shared on X. User @avecirru, also known as Hakano, shared a screenshot of the baby and captioned it, “Someone needs to tell me the lore of this baby.” As of this writing, the X post has amassed over 12 million views on the platform.

The meme soon made its way to TikTok, with people making TikToks based on the panel. User @fuyutits, also known as @yuriangel, made a video featuring the scene with a remixed version of Nicki Minaj’s “So Special.” Currently, the TikTok video has over eight million views.

Others have combined this meme with other viral memes. On TikTok, some users have combined the panel with songs from Charli XCX’s hit album brat. On X, others have combined “Queen never cry” with the solo poly black amputee houseless hijabi meme and the “Holding space for defying gravity” meme. If you aren’t chronically online, this might sound like total gibberish, but I promise it makes sense.

So, whenever you feel like shedding tears, remember you are a queen. And Queen never cry.