Tony Hale’s Forky in the ‘Toy Story 4’ Trailer Is the “Me IRL” of Animated Characters

By Joe Reid @joereid
Published Nov. 12, 2018, 9:55 a.m. ET

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The first teaser trailer for the highly anticipated Toy Story 4 dropped today, and while it’s short on plot details, it does introduce the brand new character who will reportedly be known as Forky. And you guys? Forky is the stressed-out avatar for all of our moods in the year 2018. (Even if the movie won’t be released until summer 2019.)

The brief trailer offers a fixed-cam POV of a ring-around-the-rosy with all of our favorite and familiar Toy Story pals. There’s Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), of course. There’s cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack) and Mr. Potato Head and the dinosaur and the Slinky dog stretched out in full. And then there’s a new face we haven’t seen before. And that face has been haphazardly glued onto a plastic spork.

The character, who is named Forky and will be voiced by two-time Veep Emmy-winner Tony Hale, appears very much to be an arts and crafts project that Bonnie made (Bonnie being the young girl who inherited all of Andy’s old toys in Tory Story 3).

According to the official trailer description, Forky’s presence leads to a “road trip adventure”:

“Woody has always been confident about his place in the world and that his priority is taking care of his kid, whether that’s Andy or Bonnie. But when Bonnie adds a reluctant new toy called ���Forky” to her room, a road trip adventure alongside old and new friends will show Woody how big the world can be for a toy.”

Just from Forky’s appearance in this teaser, you get the sense that he’s … a bit high strung.

“I DON’T BELONG HERE!” Forky screams, echoing all of the anxieties, panic, stress, and confusion that we’ve all felt at one time or another during these stressful national times, when the news seems to present a new crisis every hour. While the toys in Toy Story are always meant to be timeless, Forky seems designed for audiences in 2018 to look at, sigh meaningfully, and say “Same.”

Forky is already well on his way to becoming a huge meme sensation. And honestly, it’s no surprise. He’s a plastic spork with googly eyes and some pipe-cleaner facial expressions. He’s every “Me IRL” tweet you ever tweeted. Also? Maybe a gay icon?

We’ll see how it goes! For now, welcome to the pop culture zeitgeist, Forky.