Noah Schnapp’s senior quote goes viral as actor reveals hidden message in yearbook

‘Making your quote something from a TV show you star in is honestly iconic,’ said one fan

Noah Schnapp’s senior quote is going viral after many fans pointed out the hidden message in his senior quote was actually a not-so-subtle Stranger Things reference.

Earlier this week, a TikTok user who said they went to high school with the Stranger Things star posted a video showing Schnapp’s senior yearbook picture and quote.

Schnapp, who plays Will Byers in the hit Netflix sci-fi series, is seen smiling in the black and white photograph alongside his twin sister, Chloe. Underneath the yearbook photo, his senior quote reads: “To all the teachers that never taught me a thing. Stranger Things S2 Episode 5, 35:08.”

The video instantly went viral with more than 530k views, as many fans noted that the timecode points to a quote from Stranger Things‘ Dustin, who’s played by Gaten Matarazzo in the show.

In the scene from season two, Dustin is seen telling his friend Mike Wheeler’s father: “Son of a bitch, you know you’re really no help at all.”

The reference amused Stranger Things fans, while others commended Schnapp for the shady hidden message to his teachers.

“I just watched the clip. I’m crying of course Noah would do that,” commented one TikToker.

“Making your quote something from a TV show you star in is honestly iconic,” said someone else.

A third user wrote: “WAIT HONESTLY I LOVE HOW HIS YEARBOOK QUOTE WAS FROM STRANGER THINGS THAT’S SO SWEET”.

Schnapp recently went viral when he came out as gay in a TikTok video shared on 5 January.

“When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was ‘we know’” while lip-syncing to an audio clip of someone saying, “You know what it never was? That serious. It was never that serious. Quite frankly, will never be that serious.”

In the caption to his TikTok video, Schnapp wrote, “I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought.”

Schnapp confirmed his character Will Byers is also gay in a June 2022 interview with Variety, saying: “Obviously, it was hinted at in season one: It was always kind of there, but you never really knew, is it just him growing up slower than his friends?”

“Now that he’s gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing. Now it’s 100 per cent clear that he is gay and he does love Mike. But before, it was a slow arc. I think it is done so beautifully, because it’s so easy to make a character just like all of a sudden be gay,” he said.

Schnapp has also said he hopes Will’s sexuality will be addressed openly in the show’s next season, adding: “There’s so many different things they have to address. Obviously, we hope for a coming-out scene.”