Why the ‘Nihilist Penguin’ went viral — Psychology, memes and the science
A short clip of a lone penguin walking away from its colony — filmed nearly two decades ago — has unexpectedly become one of the internet’s most viral symbols in early 2026. Dubbed the “Nihilist Penguin”, the video is flooding TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and X, with users projecting humor, philosophy and modern-day exhaustion onto the…