To Help His TV Show, He Became a Meme
The New York Times
Brian Jordan Alvarez’s career started on social media. His mastery of the form, and a ridiculous dance trend, have drawn viewers to his show, “English Teacher.”
The start of a new TV show is a fraught time for its creators and stars. Years of work have gone into its debut, yet the window of time in which to attract viewers is brief. Add a splintered media environment and an oxygen-sucking presidential election, and the chances for cultural relevancy slip further.
Most showrunners make the press rounds and hope for the best. Brian Jordan Alvarez unwittingly came up with another strategy: becoming a meme.
In September, shortly after the debut of “English Teacher,” an FX show that Mr. Alvarez created and stars in, a TikTok user with the handle @clozvr posted a clip from an old “Gilmore Girls” episode mashed up with the song “Breathe” by Olly Alexander.
In the “Gilmore” clip, Kirk Gleason, the awkward character played by Sean Gunn, has made a black-and-white art-house movie. In it, Kirk tells his girlfriend’s father, “I love your daughter.” When the father says, “What do you have to offer her?” Kirk replies, “Nothing. Only this,” before breaking into a goofy break dance.
Mr. Alvarez saw another TikTok user dancing in an apartment to the clip and found it “weirdly captivating,” he said. He decided to film his own version in the Nashville airport, lip-syncing to the dialogue and the song and dancing as he rolled his suitcase.
After seeing “We Live in Time,” social media users filmed themselves sobbing, creating a loop of people seeking an emotional release and then sharing it with the world.
At the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Bill T. Jones’s “Still/Here” returns, free of the AIDS-era context in which it premiered.