Chill Guy: My New Character Essay
My New Character has taken the internet by storm; T-shirts, edits, storefronts, cosplays; And at the top of almost every video, as the suggested search, My New Character OG. Because cyeveron’es curious. Why is there a fandom for a character who doesn’t really exist? I’m Paul Platt and let’s talk about My New Character.
It started out as a tweet. On October 4, 2023 Phillip Banks posted this tweet on X with the caption “My new character. His whole deal is he’s a chill guy who low key doesn’t give a fuck.”
That’s the origin story; a one tweet drip in an ocean of millions of tweets that happen daily. But — in the quintessential semi-ironic way Gen-Z seems to do everything, the character caught on.
Edits, lore, montages; there’s an entire canon built around “Chill guy.” Thousands of videos about him, and the imagined interplay between him and “My Old Character” an imagined foil also created by Phillip Banks’ in reaction to the success of the character.
It’s easy to look at My New Character as another piece in the well established internet tradition of taking something silly incredibly seriously — see George Cooper edits or Morbius.
But I think My New Character is much more interesting than that. What began as something ironic ended up as a groundswell of creative, iterative art; and I think the reason that there’s such depth and breadth to the creations around him is how he’s kind of representative of the Gen-Z platonic idea;
We all want to be “chill” and not care. [That Video]
His nonchalance level of detached coolness I think is the main aspiration for a generation whose every move has been captured and is up for dissection online, when anyone can become the internets character of the day.
Yet, interestingly, his chillness is self-purported. It’s cool in the way that someone who types in all lower case is, until you realize that they had to go into their settings to type like that. And I think that’s why people have invented such a complex internal life for Chill guy.
The most popular Chill guy video starts off like this:
[]
I can’t find that speech anywhere else. Delivered by AI, somebody wrote that for him.
My New Character exists with the pseudo-ironic framework that dominates Gen-Z culture. An outward coolness and dis attachment that disguises an emotional center that yearns for connection. The absurdity of a fandom for a character who doesn’t exist contrasted with a vulnerability and desire for authenticity.
And what’s coolest of all is that this happened by communal collaboration; Even though he was created by Phillip Banks, Chill guy doesn’t really belong to him anymore. My New Character is an example of how the grassroots iterative nature of the internet creates things that can’t help but represent the cultural zeitgeist of the time.
Like take Chill guy’s catchphrase, it comes up as a comment under almost every video of his: “They make it look so easy connecting with another human being, like it’s the easiest thing in the world.”
And what’s so fascinating about the addition of that into the characters canon is that that’s a quote from the television show Dexter. And it’s overlayed by Alex G music. Both of which are having a moment on the platform. If this character came to prevalence two years ago or any other time than today, his quotes and what he represents would be completely different. It’s more proof that the dominant form of Gen-Z art is collage… (see my essay on core-core)
When historically the greatest pieces of art have been by auteurs or individuals with a singular vision, it’s fascinating to watch the masses create communally. The internet has given us all access to the same canvas, and it’s given us all paintbrushes. It incentivizes creative collaboration and it showcases the iterative nature of creativity like nothing has before,
I think you could watch this video and think it’s way too serious of a take on something that’s silly and grass roots, and that’s completely fair. There’s no defined leader, there’s no specific defined theme, and plenty of the discourse around it is silly — But I think there’s something to it. There’s a reason that this trend has caught on and not others. And I think the millions of people who’ve connected with the character and the canon developed around it attest to that.
Whether you’ve liked or commented or created, if you’ve shared it or made a profile or even a reference, you’ve participated in something artistically that would never have been possible until today. You’ve collaborated.
You may not be able to hang it in the MOMA, but My New Character and everything that’s sprung up around him is a testament to the creative possibilities of the digital age.
