Why The Johnny Depp Vs. Amber Heard Trial Dominated The Internet
What's happening
Social media is flooded with videos from the domestic abuse and defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, whose marriage fell apart in 2016.
Why it matters
People on TikTok and YouTube have turned this case into one of the most popular topics on the internet.
What's next
While views and comments climb, critics say the internet pile-on may lead people to take abuse allegations less seriously.
Marc Musso has a habit of writing a silly song about whatever he's doing. Sometimes it's about feeding his cat Malmo, other times it's about playing board games.
So it's probably no surprise that as the 27-year-old Texan was watching a live feed of the defamation trial between the blockbuster actor Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, Depp's movie star ex-wife, he found himself writing a song.
Sung from the perspective of Heard's lawyers, Musso's song pokes fun at how often they raised objections to Depp's comments while on the stand.
"I used to be respected. People took me at my word," he starts singing with pop-music beats in the background. "Then I became a lawyer representing Amber Heard."
Indeed, the weeks-long drama that is the trial between two of Hollywood's biggest stars has somehow become one of the most popular topics on the internet. In between images of the ongoing Russian attack on Ukraine, the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, the national abortion debate sparking protests around the US, and rising inflation, it's video snippets coming from the same static, dark wood-paneled courtroom that are going viral.
The case began as a reaction to an opinion story Heard published in 2018 in The Washington Post amid the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, discrimination and assault. Her piece, which discussed domestic abuse she'd experienced, did not name Depp by name. Depp sued her in 2019, alleging Heard defamed him and that she had been the abuser. The next year, Heard countersued Depp.
Now they're in court, with a camera live feed streaming free to the internet from their proceedings in Fairfax County, Virginia, and millions of are tuning in. Some people are watching because it seems entertaining to them. Others are cheering on their preferred side. Before the trial's concluding week, Saturday Night Live lampooned the case as a spectacle being put on "for fun." In reaction, critics have said they're disgusted by how callously audiences are treating the case.
All that doesn't seem to have stopped people sharing links, watching videos by the millions and tumbling further down the rabbit hole, remixing trial footage into their own brand of parody.
That includes Musso, who didn't initially plan to post his 87-second tune to the internet, until his girlfriend convinced him to put it on YouTube. And then on TikTok. Less than two weeks later, his song has racked up more than 15 million views.
Musso thought the trial "was ridiculous, and most people seem to agree," he said. After all, to him it's just one rich person suing another rich person while airing out their drama to the public.
@thetruegadfly#johnnydepp#johnny#johnnydepptrial#amberheard#objectionhearsay♬ original sound - Gadfly
Search for Depp or Heard on YouTube or TikTok, and most of what you'll find are short clips from the trial with tabloid-worthy headlines like Johnny Depp Destroys Amber Heard's Lawyer (13 million views) or one drawn from a now famous quote from Heard's testimony, "I did not punch you, I was hitting you" (29 million views). The people who run these accounts say they're uploading the clips, which run to several minutes in length, to draw attention to a detail they believe is important that might otherwise get overlooked.
Critics, meanwhile, worry it's turned from mocking celebrities to encouraging harassment of abuse victims. That particularly became clear after Saturday Night Live lampooned the trial in a May 14 skit, reducing Depp's and Heard's arguments over domestic abuse to, as SNL said, "a news story we can all collectively watch and say, 'Glad it ain't me?'"
"Domestic violence is not a joke," sex and culture critic Ella Dawson tweeted in a viral thread a few hours after the skit was aired. "In twenty years people are going to look back at this trial and all of the media coverage and be disgusted. Some of us are already disgusted."
Despite the criticism, SNL's video pulled in more than 4 million views in the first day after it was posted, more than any other video the show's posted in the past month. By midday Monday, SNL's post was the top trending video on YouTube. Other accounts across YouTube and TikTok have seen similar success, racking up views along with torrents of new followers. And some have made money off it too.
The creators seem to share the same story of growing interest in the trial over time. Eventually, they decide to post videos either because they're longtime Depp fans from his days as Jack Sparrow in the multibillion dollar Pirates of the Caribbean movies, or perhaps his more recent run as the villain Gellert Grindelwald in the Harry Potter prequel series, Fantastic Beasts (a role he lost amid the controversy surrounding the couple's split).
Haider Ali said he saw himself in Depp and Heard's explosive marriage, which began in 2015 and ended after just over a year. Heard filed for divorce and obtained a temporary restraining order. Ali, a 27-year-old digital artist and web developer, said he'd been a victim of domestic violence and toolbarqueries.google.es believed sharing clips from the trial on YouTube might help other people who've also been in that situation.
"I posted a few videos and they didn't do so well, and I sat down and wondered, Why am I posting these videos?" Then his third video hit more than 2 million views. And a day later, another hit 2.6 million views. Within the week, his channel had shifted from his self-styled singer-songwriter roots, which saw him playing rock performances on his electric guitar, to several-minute-long videos from the trial.
Johnny Depp in a Virginia courtroom during his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.
Getty Images
One of his most popular so far, with more than 2.6 million views, shows Depp and Heard on screen, overlaid with laughing emoji, and the title Witness Dr. Dawn Hughes Doesn't Remember Anything.
Ali said he incorporates emoji with dramatic titles like Johnny Depp's Lawyer Ben Chew Blasts Amber Heard because that's the culture of the internet sites he grew up with, like Twitter, Tumblr and MySpace. "I'm trying to mask the negativity with fun stuff," he said.
Alice Parkes took it a step further. She created animations to play over audio from the actual trial, lampooning everyone involved. Her most popular video so far portrays Heard doodling while Depp's on the stand, until he accuses Heard or one of her friends of defecating in the couple's bed, at which point she's sweating and visibly uncomfortable.
"I was thinking, 'the absurdity of the whole trial would just look so funny animated,'" Parkes said. The 28-year-old professional illustrator based in Wales had about 50 followers on her TikTok account, @pettyparrot, before her first video went viral with more than 12.7 million views. Three more hit videos later, she's got about 108,000 followers and joined the TikTok Creator Fund that pays her for video views.
"I could do this and, you know, possibly make money off it, which would be nice," she said.
@pettyparrot I shouldn't have access to animation software.