Sophia Michaels
“Weird Barbies” are finally getting the recognition they deserve. In Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” Kate McKinnon portrays a disheveled doll who’s been played with “too hard.” Her face is scribbled on, her blond hair is chaotically chopped, and she’s often in the splits. Weird Barbie’s presence among the slew of other perfectly manicured Barbies and Kens clearly struck a chord: following the movie’s debut, viewers have started showing off their own botched dolls from childhood, creating a social media trend that’s simultaneously hilarious, nostalgic, and relatable.
Over on TikTok, Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” soundtracks countless footage of Barbies that’ve undergone some pretty extreme makeovers. “I feel so bad for my barbie. She’s walking around in barbie land like this!” one user wrote over a clip of a shaved doll head attached to two plastic legs without a body or arms. Other videos show a doll stuck in a beer can, one with a green dinosaur body, and another with a tiny picture of Eminem inexplicably taped over the face.
It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing Weird Barbie than McKinnon. During a Good Morning America interview earlier this month, the star spoke about her initial reaction to landing the role. “I was like, ‘Oh, it’s a documentary. I’m doing a cameo as myself. Fine, I can do that. No problem, I’ll show up,'” she joked.
The actor also said she was “pretty involved” in bringing her character’s quirky look to life. “A lot of discussions went into the placement of where does the marker go on your face, and what is the shape is the squiggle, and how chopped is the hair?” she said. “It’s based on the Barbie that I think we all had where you’d cut the hair off and burn the clothes and draw on it. Actually a lot of thought goes into all those elements, so it was very exciting to work on that look.”
Read ahead to watch the funniest “weird Barbie” TikToks we’ve come across so far, and get in on the fun by posting your own mangled doll for all to see.
