Scroll through TikTok in 2026, and you might be surprised to encounter a glut of thirst trap fan edits devoted to Tom Welling, the actor best known for playing the fresh-faced, high school-aged Clark Kent on Smallville, a show that premiered way back in — checks notes — 2001. The top comments on these posts might also raise an eyebrow: “White boy of the century.” “I need to clone him.” “I would’ve died for him.” And just wait till you hear about all the banana-and-coconut water consumption he’s inspiring.
But first, some background: Welling rose to fame on the hit, which first ran on the WB and then on the CW for 10 seasons and showed Superman’s angsty adolescent origin story. Though the teen drama hasn’t been on the air since 2011, it’s captivated a whole new generation of viewers who were introduced to Smallville when it was added to Netflix this January. During a time when Gen Z-ers largely consider most millennial-coded things as cringe, they do seem to agree that Smallville-era Welling is an absolute babe. Such a babe, in fact, that some fans don’t just want to look at him; they want to look like him.
Enter the “Smallville Method.”
As this TikToker explains, the “Smallville Method” is a looksmaxxing meme making the rounds on social media. It’s driven by young men vying (or pretending to be vying) for Welling’s looks. That chiseled jaw? Try mewing (or hope you won the genetic lottery). That tousled, medium-length hairdo? Get to a barber. That clear skin and understated buff bod? Load up on bananas and coconut water, both of which are good sources of potassium (which prevents dehydration and bloating). Oh, and ideally, do it while you binge-watch old episodes of Smallville. The most popular video of this trend has more than 9 million views on TikTok.
While Welling, who is now 48, did once make a throwaway remark about eating bananas — he literally just says “I have eaten bananas before” — during a 2017 episode of his Smallville costar Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast, the origins of the “Smallville Method” he’s inspired are murky at best. It’s mostly an ironic internet joke, not actual self-care. As Sarah Kornfield, a professor of communication and gender studies at Hope College, tells Yahoo, she doubts that most people are sitting down to “pound a whole bunch of bananas” to get hot.
Tom Welling.
(WB/Everett Collection)
But while a lot of the TikToks out there are tongue-in-cheek, something about the “Smallville Method” seems to speak to an exhaustion with the culture of looksmaxxing, which encourages men to maximize their physical attractiveness through extreme methods.
Welling, in his Smallville heyday, showed off a strong jawline, a natural smile with charmingly sharp canines, a glorious head of shaggy dark brown hair and a lean-but-muscular bod. That his physical appearance is being celebrated 25 years later, reflects the shifting tides of male beauty standards. It could be signaling a move away from bulging biceps and a clearly defined six-pack toward a more natural, softer build. We’re yearning for something organic — something more unassuming, homegrown and all-American.
“The Clark Kent character is a classic small-town white boy,” Kornfield says. “What we’re seeing is a nostalgia for and a return to a sort of nice-guy, real American aesthetic. There is something that feels very ‘America’ about this small-town iteration of muscles, maybe some flannel and a baseball cap backward.”
Paul Deslandes, who teaches the history of gender and sexuality at the University of Vermont, echoes Kornfield’s sentiments. Welling’s look, he adds, can also be interpreted as a successful embodiment of American masculinity — at least of a specific kind.
Another shot of Welling as Clark Kent.
(WB/Everett Collection)
“Here’s this guy who’s playing Clark Kent, who’s Superman, who, throughout the history of the character, has sort of represented a white version of American masculinity that I think people are nostalgic for,” Deslandes tells Yahoo. “Some men … are looking to an aesthetic ideal that is most readily achievable by white men because it’s built on a white ideal.”
While looksmaxxing can involve doing dangerous, often outrageous things to achieve a certain physical appearance, the “Smallville Method” seems to be a silly response to that — all you need is a haircut and a banana.
“It does appear to be a kind of recourse to a more natural look and a desire to kind of allow men to enhance what they already have,” Deslandes says. “There is a tendency to always look to the past and say, ‘Oh, there was a certain naturalness in that period and a certain ideal.’ I think there’s an element of truth to that. People are hungering for a period when you couldn’t modify your appearance as readily as you can on social media.”
As is common with memes and online trends, the buzz around the “Smallville Method” will probably die down in a matter of weeks. What we hope doesn’t die down? The collective swooning over Welling’s Clark Kent era. He’s a 2000s heartthrob who deserves his flowers! Plus, those TikTok thirst edits are way too good to give up.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
