Once upon a time, a young college student (me) was on her way home from campus, taking advantage of her corner seat of the subway where no one in the car could see her phone as she scrolled TikTok edits. It was then that she discovered that Nicholas Chavez edit. Yes, *the* Nicholas Chavez edit. If you know you know. Safe to say, she lived happily ever after — or at least, that’s what I’m expecting.
All jokes aside, since Netflix released its new show Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, it has taken the internet by storm. As a true crime girly, this show piqued my interest due to its subject matter. The show is based on the real-life Menendez brothers, Lyle and Erik, who killed their parents in 1989. While the new show takes on some really heavy subject matter, the two actors who play brothers are, well, very attractive — hence all the TikTok edits. But there’s one edit in particular that has everyone in a chokehold, and it’s of the actor who plays Lyle in the series, Nicholas Chavez. (God, I love the internet.)Â
Since it was posted on Sept. 21, it has amassed over over 40 million views (and I’m pretty sure at least half of those views are from me). Following the original edit, there are trends surfacing of people showing their moms and grandmothers the Nicholas Chavez TikTok edit to get their reactions, boyfriends playing the audio while recording their girlfriends to see if they recognize the sound, and then lots and lots of drooling.
The edit has even made it into college classrooms. My personal favorite is the video of a college professor playing it on a huge projector screen in her Monday lecture. Another great one is the one where a bunch of people are watching it at the same time, with an onscreen caption of “the only motivation we need for exam season.” Honestly, same.
Following in the footsteps of many others, this edit will go down in history as “that one Nicholas Chavez edit.” Rest in peace to “that one Jacob Elordi edit,” “that one Joe Keery edit,” “that one Pedro Pascal edit,” and of course the one that started it all, “that one Timothee Chalamet edit.” They all have served us well, and it’s these predecessors that got us to this moment, so we only have them to thank… and Nicholas Chavez’s parents, of course.