Like few others around, Matty Healy is a bonafide icon. Whether it’s the sold-out arenas around the world, the bevy of haircuts identifiable by their silhouettes alone, or the ever-growing roster of genre-fluid, zeitgeist-capturing tracks, the 1975 frontman is more than a musician, he’s a pop culture figure for the ages.
Today is Matty Healy’s 30th birthday, and what better way to celebrate the end of his third decade on earth than with a quick run-through of all the times he’s become a meme. From autotune to self-reference and beyond, these are the best Matty memes of all.
nO fUcKiNg fIgHtInG aT mY gIg, fUcK oFf
Fighting at gigs is a tosser’s game, really. Keep your fists to yourselves, lads – no-one’s impressed. But if you really must get punchy, there’s nowt more emasculating than being told off by a man so drenched in Autotune that he sounds like the lovechild of Siri herself, right in the middle of an extended ambient wig-out (who the fuck fights to ambient music anyway?). Fair play, Matthew.
And I *do* make art, thank you very much
This is mainly brilliant for the sheer comic timing of it all. That turn to the camera. That direct address to your grumpy uncle. That fact that he then goes on to say that the best art is all about being personally addressed – right after personally addressing you. Is this his most artistic statement to date? Is that the whole point? It might well be, you know. Or we’ve had too much coffee. One of the two.
(Anti)christ alive
A sure-fire favourite amongst the old-school 1975 heads, the constant calls for the band to add early days sad jam ‘Antichrist’ to their live sets have become a meme all of their own. From Matty’s constant, ever-more desperate pleas for people to just stop fucking asking him, to the fact that Nintendo themselves (yes, as in That Massive Videogames Company) refused to give him any free shit unless he’d play the damn song, ‘Antichrist’ is an albatross that looks set to stick around for some time.
Play Antichrist live then we’ll talk
— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) December 14, 2018
Selling petrol
Probably the most successful meme of all – a little aside in a new song became a full-on, stalking-him-in-the-streets moment amongst the 1975’s fanbase last year, after Matty’s delightfully silly lyric, “But he works in a petrol station… selling petrol” went supernova. Cue fans screaming that once-whispered line back at him at shows, and coming up to him in the street to perform little impromptu renditions. You have to wonder whether he regrets it, really. It’s all got a bit much.
hahahaha so I just met matty and- pic.twitter.com/QgtU3kAwmz
— alex (@sellingpetrol) December 7, 2018