In October 2024, an old meme resurfaced on TikTok and started a new trend that is still relevant today. That was the ‘Hear Me Out’ cake trend. The premise of this trend was revealing the questionable fictional characters you were attracted to using, well, cake.
What was the ‘hear me out’ cake trend?
TikTok videos with millions of views showed users sticking pictures of these characters onto cake as if they were toppers. Each friend took a turn to place their stick onto the cake, with each subsequent character being more egregious or unexpected than the last. Think the jaguar from
Kung Fu Panda, Michael Keaton in
Beetlejuice, or the hot female fish from
Shark Tale. In other words, all people you wouldn’t usually consider attractive, but for some reason, they appeal to you.
Therefore, the point of the trend being called the “Hear Me Out” cake is that your attraction of choice will definitely need some explaining and hardcore justification. As in, “Just hear me out for a minute–let me explain.” It’s important to note, however, that this wasn’t the first time the “hear me out” meme was used on the internet.
The phrase has been around for at least a decade and was originally used to pitch silly ideas that wouldn’t quite be taken seriously. Think ideas along the lines of that infamous
Spongebob Squarepants scene where Patrick says, “We should take Bikini Bottom and push it somewhere else!” to avoid the Alaskan Bullworm from eating them all.
But over time, the meme became sexualized, and the cake trend in 2024 made it more so, with folks sharing their confusing attractions to the horror of TikTok viewers.
Who is considered a ‘hear me out?’
Today, the meme has become a slang and has been incredibly divisive, especially along gendered lines. For instance, some women accuse straight men of having ‘Hear Me Outs’ that are conventionally attractive, like Lara Croft from
Tomb Raider. Women argue that ‘hear me outs’ should make people genuinely question your sanity, like the Candelabra from the animated
Beauty and the Beast.
The cake trend may have debuted last fall, but the phrase “hear me out” is now an official label. And now Gen Z and Alpha use it to refer to anyone who isn’t conventionally good-looking but they still find attractive. They could slap on the label on a TikTok influencer, a less-than-popular classmate who is charming, or an older celebrity who may be past his good looks prime. For example, one popular choice among Gen Z girls was
Danny DeVito.
However, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a compliment. To some, being called a "hear me out" is just another way of being called "a little ugly," and who wants to be called that? So it's safer to keep our "hear me outs" to strictly fictional characters––and it goes without saying, every "hear me out" is subjective, so what matters is that the person is attractive to you, so don't worry about what judgmental folks say.
