Five nights at Freddy’s and The Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson saw those “Whistle” editing videos that people were sharing online, with images of him edited over a cover of Flo Rida’s song “Whistle.” The Rickroll-like meme format went viral on platforms like TikTok in late November and continues to inspire viral videos. Now Hutcherson has answered: In an interview with Entertainment Tonight On Tuesday, the actor posted that he had seen the memes and that while he didn’t “get it,” he was “here for it.”
In the video interview, Entertainment Tonight’s Ash Crossan asks Hutcherson to talk about “the ‘Whistle’ cut.” “I love it. It’s great,” says Hutcherson. “It’s like someone said it’s become like the new Rickroll, and I’m like, This is just wild. I don’t know where it came from. It’s the most random video, and then when I saw it I thought: Oh it is The ‘Pipe.’ Ahhh OK. I was like, I don’t understand it, but I’m here for it.”
End of November, a fan edit The use of several photos of Hutcherson went viral on platforms like TikTok. Set to an acoustic cover of “Whistle,” the video went viral when people surprisingly started incorporating it into other videos. The meme went viral with top videos with more than 2.2 million views
Hutcherson says he’s heard about the trend but isn’t on social media platforms so doesn’t know much about it. Then his brother and his brother invited him over the holidays to talk about it. “So they gave me the overview, they showed me all these videos, we all laughed about it,” he says. “It’s wild.” The actor also spoke about the videos during his appearance
Hutcherson also speculated on an important detail of the editing: the possible origin of the iconic opening photo. In the interview, the actor speculated that it could have come from one Saturday Night Live shoots, but says he just doesn’t know.
It’s all a bit surreal. Hutcherson has starred in numerous major media projects, including the Hunger Games franchise and Bridge to Terabithiaand he plays the dirty villain in the new Jason Statham film The beekeeper. But now he’s the face of a 2012 Flo Rida cover.