Timothée Chalamet NYU Chlamydia Rumor

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Part of a series on Timothée Chalamet. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Timothée Chlamet NYU Chlamydia Rumor refers to a series of unsubstantiated reports that actor Timothée Chalamet infected numerous people at New York University with chlamydia. The rumor went viral in June 2020 prompting memes that mimicked Chalamet's performances, particularly in the film Call Me By Your Name, which focuses on a teen boy's first sexual experiences.

Background

Twitter ^[1] user @gray666on tweeted the earliest known report of the rumor on March 4, 2018. In the since-deleted post, they wrote, "mutual friend got chlamydia from timothee chalamet, pass it on" (shown below).

On January 3rd, 2019, Wattapad^[2] user riverphoenixgf posted a fan fiction story "timothee gives you chlamydia" about contracting chlamydia from Chalamet, requested by Wattapad user 80sbandit. The story (shown below) garnered over 12,300 views, 60 favorites and 50 comments in five years.

Developments

2020 Resurgence

In 2020, the rumors resurfaced, inspiring a series of social media posts that express a willingness to contract chlamydia from the actor. On January 4th, Twitter^[3] user @smabolon2 tweeted, "Timothée Chalamet spread chlamydia across the NYU campus and all I’m saying is that it’s one pill and I’m in the east village @RealChalamet" (shown below, left).

On April 22nd, 2020, riverphoenixgf posted a part two of the fan fiction story.^[4]

On June 12th, Twitter^[5] user @ladybirdslouvre tweeted, "i’m literally a dyke but i would still let timothée chalamet give me chlamydia and say gee thanks" (shown below, right).

On June 13th, 2020, Twitter^[6] user @jonspellednoh, "the whole ‘timothée chalamet spread chlamydia at nyu’ thing is crazy because it ACTUALLY. HAPPENED. he fucked like a RABBIT. too many people i know can attest to knowing someone who knows someone that got chlamydia from oscar-nominated actor timothée chalamet and that sends me." Within one week, the tweet received more than 210,000 likes and 22,000 retweets (shown below).

Days later, @jonspellednoh posted a video to TikTok a series of posts based off his own, which state that Chalamet had sexual intercourse with a rabbit, misreading his initial tweet. The post received more than 97,000 views, 1,000 likes and 150 retweets when posted to Twitter.

2023 Resurgence

In November 2023, the meme saw a resurgence after on November 4th, 2023, X^[7] user @skyferrori made a video caption meme referencing the rumor that garnered over 4,100 reposts and 66,000 likes in three months (shown below).