The finale of hit television show “Breaking Bad” aired over nine years ago. Despite this, it has continued to have cultural relevance on social media apps, like TikTok and Instagram. Some “Breaking Bad” memes and video edits have even racked up millions of views.
“Breaking Bad” is a drama about a science teacher turned drug kingpin. During its run, the show was a hit with both critics and the common viewer. The positive reception helped stretch the lifespan of the series after its finale on streaming services like Netflix and launched a spin off show entitled “Better Call Saul.”
Over the years as more people streamed breaking bad, they began recommending it to friends and family, a practice that is still happening today. This is how “Breaking Bad” fan and Loyola University Maryland graduate Henry Podeschi found the show.
Podeschi said, “I think a couple friends recommended it to me and my parents were watching it. So I kind of hopped on and fell in love with the characters. The storytelling is really good and it’s a really unique and interesting world.”
Now that a new group of “Breaking Bad” fans had found the show, they would find new ways of interacting with the material. A man who goes by “Lofii.ae” online is one of the most popular “Breaking Bad” creators on social media. He prefers to stay anonymous under his screen name and posts video edits of the show to TikTok; the same medium that originally sparked his interest in “Breaking Bad.”
Lofii.ae said, “When TikTok started to get popular I started to see ‘Breaking Bad’ memes and edits on my ‘For You page’ and that kinda drew me into it.”
After watching the show Lofii.ae said he was inspired to make video edits of his own, featuring key scenes and character moments from the series edited with quick transitions and popular music. Posting these videos created Lofii.ae’s following.
“Honestly I never really expected to blow this much, five million views, two million, one million. I used to make edits and get only like 50 views,” Lofii.ae said.
Lofii.ae’s edit with five million views references the “Breaking Bad” episode “Half Measures” was viewed live by a little over one million U.S. viewers at the time of its release in 2010.
Like Lofii.ae, Instagram user “Hectorsalamancagaming” is another popular “Breaking Bad” fan creator, but rather than making video edits he creates memes. He prefers to stay anonymous going by the name of “Breaking Bad” character Hector Salamanca online. His page is a part of what is known as the “Breaking Bad Irony Community,” which, according to him, is a group of Instagram meme pages that finds a way to make every scene from the show into some sort of meme. In the process of posting these ironic “Breaking Bad” memes, Hector has garnered nearly 15,000 followers. He believes that people enjoy content like Lofii.ae’s and his own because fans enjoy “Breaking Bad” so much.
Hector said, “I’d say that people genuinely are infatuated with the ‘Breaking Bad’ and ’Better Call Saul’ series and want all new types of content and even memes.”
Despite nine years of online relevance, the “Breaking Bad” spin off “Better Call Saul” just wrapped up its final season, meaning that there will be no new “Breaking Bad” universe shows or movies on the horizon. For some, this calls into question how long “Breaking Bad” content has left in the limelight.
After spending the past two years participating in and observing “Breaking Bad” social media pages, Hector is both optimistic and uncertain of the future of memes and content surrounding the show as the fanbase enters uncharted territory.
“There will come a day when ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’ memes all dry up and the community will either die out or post other memes. It’s quite simple, it’s like an ecosystem, only the ones with the best memes will survive,” Hector said. “The fan base is definitely changed knowing there isn’t an ongoing series anymore. This hasn’t happened ever before. I think it will go far, but it will take a lot of innovation to keep it alive.”
Featured Image courtesy of Nicholas Mangold.
