Why is everyone suddenly falling to their knees at Bunnings?

The red carpet at the Dally M Awards always gets fans talking. This year was no exception, as the buzziest players strutted their stuff before rugby league’s night of nights at the Randwick Racecourse. But this year’s carpet shone a ring light on an unexpected trend: falling to your knees at a major chain store.

When a photo of Dolphins centre Herbie Farnworth and his partner Lily Pickles appeared on social media on Wednesday night, many fans responded by referencing Bunnings, the popular DIY warehouse.

Herbie Farnworth and Lily Pickles’ Dally M red carpet appearance had fans non-stop talking about … Bunnings?Credit: NRL Imagery

“Just fell to my knees at Bunnings,” one user wrote.

Others expanded on this, writing that they “just saw an ambulance pull up to the Bunnings”, and that the “road to Bunnings has been closed off, heard some guy dusted his knee”.

On the surface, there appears little connection between rugby league and a hardware store known for, as much as anything, its weekend sausage sizzles. However, it has become the latest target of a years-old social media trend.

It started in October 2021, when X user @whynotaddy wrote: “Just fell to my knees in a Walmart parking lot,” after discovering that You co-stars Victoria Pedretti and Dylan Arnold were dating. The tweet gathered over 150,000 likes in less than a year. The phrase essentially signified the user’s crushing disappointment that their celebrity crush had become unavailable.

Though it originated on X (formerly Twitter), it truly gained momentum on TikTok, when a user known for his particularly impressive moustache suddenly shaved it all off. Falling to their knees at Walmart – an American retail chain – seemed to be the only phrase that effectively captured his followers’ utter shock.

Since then, the expression has become a go-to on social media when someone is surprised, disappointed, confused, or, alternatively, when they find someone attractive. It has also been adapted for a local audience, as exemplified at the Dally M, with Australians swapping out Walmart for Aussie establishments such as Bunnings, but also Coles, Woolworths and BWS.

So, when Farnworth and Pickles arrived at the red carpet, fans using the phrase were either blown away by the couple’s glam, or were trying to verbalise the sadness they felt over the fact that neither of them were on the dating market.

This isn’t the first time Bunnings – which was recently crowned the country’s most trusted brand – has infiltrated the cultural zeitgeist. Australian electronic band Peking Duk remixed the hardware store’s famous anthem in June, posting an unofficial video to TikTok.

This inspired an alcohol-free rave at an actual Bunnings warehouse in Melbourne in August. The band, with Sydney DJ Kaila, What So Not and NayNay, performed their tunes amid a sausage sizzle and face-painting.

Tickets for the event sold out in just four minutes, and all proceeds went toward Support Act, a not-for-profit that provides support services to music industry artists and workers.

Melbourne Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes won the NRL Dally M and Roosters forward Olivia Kernick was awarded the NRLW Dally M.

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