The headphones meme or Patrick Bateman walking meme is based on a scene from the film where Bateman wordlessly walks into work, listening to “Walking on Sunshine.” Advertisement.

From the “morning shed” to fitness advice from the manosphere, Christian Bale’s iconic morning montage in “American Psycho” has become par for the course for online influencers.

The image of Bateman being so memorably enshrined onscreen in this sequence is not supposed to be aspirational. But pull up TikTok or Instagram or Reddit and you can easily find your way into a ...