‘I Am A Surgeon’ Meme From ‘The Good Doctor,’ Explained

ABC’s hospital drama The Good Doctor has been airing since 2017, but the show has suddenly caught the attention of the internet after a memorable scene went viral on TikTok, inspiring a surge of bizarre memes.

The titular “good doctor” is Dr. Sean Murphy (Freddie Highmore), an autistic surgeon with savant syndrome, with Highmore delivering a very theatrical performance. The show has been criticized for its one-note portrayal of autism as a disability “superpower,” a simplistic trope which goes back to Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man.

On TikTok, fans of the show earnestly post scenes from the series, which inadvertently sparked an ironic fandom who found the show funny, as the scenes began to “leak” outside of the real fanbase. Out of context, many clips come across as amusingly melodramatic, thanks to the show’s soapy sentimentalism, and Highmore’s intensity.

One particularly memorable scene went viral, showing a teary-eyed Highmore screaming, “I am a surgeon!” to Dr. Jackson Han (Daniel Dae Kim).

In the scene, Dr. Han is concerned that Murphy’s social awkwardness might be a liability, and seeks to excluded him from a tumor removal surgery, prompting an extremely emotional reaction from Murphy; one TikTok post of the scene accumulated more than 19 million views.

After going viral, the scene underwent a series of increasingly surreal edits, with TikTokers adding hallucinogenic distortion and laser eyes, or replacing “surgeon” with “sturgeon,” and “SpongeBob.”

From there, the scene spread to Twitter, where users broke the scene down into more traditional memes, using screencaps and funny photo edits, with many celebrating Dr. Han’s stoic reaction.

Dr. Han’s composure instantly sparked an ironic fandom; even in a medical melodrama, Daniel Dae Kim just can’t help being cool.

Eventually, the two characters were absorbed into the archetypal “Virgin vs. Chad” meme.

Much like the gleefully misplaced enthusiasm of the Morbius meme, the fun comes from not knowing the context of the scene, with most users having never seen the show and assuming that Highmore’s performance is always aggressively dialed up.

Others expressed bafflement that the show was so popular, but passed under the radar of the extremely online; there’s a whole other world of television out there.

The meme seemed to go viral at record speed; what began in earnest ended in irony, and might already have burned out; The Good Doctor, however, might have just attracted some new fans, seeking to mine the show for content.