YET another TikTok trend has gone viral, this time featuring a penguin from a 2007 documentary who abandoned its colony.
Here’s everything you need to know about the ‘nihilist penguin’ – a meme that’s exploding across social media worldwide.
What is the nihilist penguin and why is everybody talking about it?
The nihilist penguin trend kicked off on TikTok in mid-January 2026, before quickly spreading to Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and X.
It refers to a scene from Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World.
The clip shows a lone Adelie penguin abandoning its colony to march inland across Antarctic ice toward distant mountains, about 70 km from the sea.
This footage has taken off on social media, where users dubbed it the “nihilist penguin” for its apparent rejection of survival instincts.
All about the ‘2026 is the new 2016’ trend on Instagram and TikTok
silly semantics
What the 6-7 meme means, and why it is being banned from classrooms
It has been turned into a darkly funny meme that has been shared millions of times.
In this context, it symbolises existential burnout, quiet quitting, and the urge to walk away from societal pressures without explanation or a plan.
While Herzog himself called it a “death march”, internet users have reframed it philosophically.
The penguin has been anthropomorphised – people projecting human characteristics onto it – into exhibiting deliberate nihilism.
Put simply, Nihilism is a philosophical belief that life has no meaning or purpose.
Millions have shared the nihilist penguin meme along with captions such as “When you’re done with everything”, “I’m out”, “What’s the point?”, “He knows something we don’t” and “Quiet rebellion”.
Did the nihilist penguin die?
Herzog suggested the penguin likely perished, as its inland path led away from food sources into and into likely starvation or exhaustion, with no known return.
Per IMDb, in the documentary, he says: “He would neither go towards finding grounds at the edge of the ice nor return to the colony.
“Shortly afterwards we saw him heading straight towards mountains, some seventy kilometres away.
“Dr Engly explained that even if we caught him and brought him back to the colony, he would immediately head right back for the mountains… but why?…
“He is heading off into the interior of the vast continent. With five thousand kilometres ahead of him, he is heading towards certain death.”
While highly unusual, scientists attribute the behaviour to causes including disorientation, illness, injury, or rare exploratory instincts – but not philosophy.
Although the penguin’s fate was not confirmed, Adelie penguins rarely survive such treks, making death probable.
This uncertainty only fuels the meme’s power.
