Gary Barlow – the inadvertent icon of ‘hun culture’

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Gary Barlow has just arrived in South Africa, ready to fulfil his celebrity national service by embarking on his very own TV travelogue. But first, before he can truly set out on “what promises to be one of [his] greatest tours ever”, the singer must shimmy out of his trainers and into some more comfortable footwear. “I can’t do anything until I’ve got my flip flops on,” he admits cheerily to the camera, his accent still undiluted North West after three decades in showbiz. “The flip flop has landed!” he then exclaims in a stage whisper, holding his hands up to the heavens. 

This early scene from Gary Barlow’s Wine Tour: South Africa, the new ITV daytime show from the Take That star turned royal-approved songwriter turned sometime organic winemaker, feels a bit like watching someone’s affable dad in a family holiday video, albeit one with very high production values. And just like so much of Barlow’s recent output, it also feels destined to become a meme, shared out of context on social media ad infinitum. The same goes for a clip where he pours a cup of tea into a plant pot so that he can swap said beverage for a glass of white wine. Or a moment when he proclaims that he is “having the time” – pause – “and the wine” – second pause, so the rhyme can sink in – “of [his] life”.

Barlow’s accidental reinvention as the king of memes got started in earnest (and earnest does feel like the operative word) earlier this year, when a short clip shared on his Gary Barlow Wines TikTok account ended up enjoying unlikely viral fame on the social media platform. The video in question? It showed the 53-year-old grinning into his phone camera while standing in a vineyard, staying silent for just a beat too long before saying, “This is my idea of a very nice day out,” smiling for a bit longer, then reaching to turn off the recording.

The “holiday dad” vibes were off the chart, only added to by the slight touch of sunburn that Barlow appeared to have acquired on his jaunt. Inevitably, audio of Barlow started appearing on other people’s posts, as they – often ironically – spelled out their own idea of what constitutes a very nice day out. Brands like Ikea and Aldi jumped on the bandwagon. Every other social media video seemed to feature a Barlow jump scare.

And a quick scroll back through Barlow’s TikTok account featured plenty more inadvertent gold. My personal favourite video has long been the one where Barlow raises a glass of red wine aloft and declares “Happy Galentine’s Day everyone!” Why is Barlow celebrating Galentine’s Day, a Parks and Recreation reference that has snowballed into a “live laugh love”-style celebration of female friendship? Because he surely understands that his successful career has been largely built on the support of his female fans. Or because he knows that Galentine’s is a great excuse to shift a few bottles of his latest rosé. Whoever is running the brand’s social media deserves a pay rise (and a few liberally poured glasses of the sauvignon blush).  

But his next big meme hit, much like the wine, was completely organic. Earlier this month, one X (Twitter) user noticed that the height difference between Barlow and his 24-year-old son Daniel is somewhat pronounced: in one family photo, Daniel towers over his 5ft 7in dad, mum Dawn and younger sister Daisy. Cue endless references to “Gary Barlow’s massive son”, and old photos of Gary himself being repurposed with some very creative captions. A picture of Barlow surrounded by golden confetti became “Gary Barlow standing next to his son eating a croissant”. Another promo shot of Barlow (inexplicably) underwater was reimagined as Barlow “checking the temperature of his son’s bath”. You get the gist. Did the fact that Dan Barlow reportedly stands at 6ft 2in, and is therefore just tall rather than massive, hinder the meme? Not at all. Did social media users lean into the joke so avidly as a way of distracting themselves from the US presidential election? Quite possibly.

So what is it about Barlow that makes him such a walking, talking meme? There has always been something a little bit Alan Partridge about the star, even during his early boyband days, when he acquired a reputation for being a bit self-serious: we see it in archive footage featured in Netflix’s Robbie Williams documentary, when Barlow explains how he keeps all his song lyrics in a special notebook, then marks them with a gold star if they become a success. The voiceover for Wine Tour may only burnish that reputation. At one point, he declares that “this pairing food and wine business seems as easy as pie” over footage of him eating a pie; and in the “next time on…” montage, he promises that episode two will see him “go kayaking with Michaela Strachan” (a concept that has more than a touch of Partridge’s notorious TV pitch for “youth hostelling with Chris Eubank”). 

Barlow’s penchant for deadpan statements is weirdly well suited to the heavily ironised world of social media, where the banal gets taken out of context and repurposed into something ridiculous. And this new life as an inadvertent social media star, being celebrated for being, well, a cheerful and earnest middle-aged man, has arguably done him good. He’s been able to play up to the memes, showing he might be in on the joke: on the opening night of Take That’s most recent tour in April, he declared the event to be, yes, “a very nice day out”. The band have even launched T-shirts bearing the slogan.

In fact, accidentally becoming the straight, male version of a “hun” is arguably the best PR he has had in years. I’m sure Gary would raise a chilled glass of Savvy B to that.

‘Gary Barlow’s Wine Tour: South Africa’ airs 11 November to 15 November at 2pm on ITV1 and ITVX