Beetlejuice "What Are You Doing?" Just Hanging Around

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Beetlejuice "What Are You Doing?" Just Hanging Around refers to an exploitable template featuring ex-boxer and Howard Stern collaborator Beetlejuice, also known as Beetlepimp, Beetle or Beet, getting asked, "What are you doing?" to which he replies, "Nothing… Me? Just hanging around." The original video shows Beetlejuice in a hotel room talking about why he went off the grid and it was posted to Instagram in late 2021 by his manager Robert Rooney (@bobbyrooney175). In early 2023, the video became a greenscreen template in video memes on TikTok, many of which used a CapCut template. The video was used to portray humorous ignorance about being caught in a given scenario.

Origin

On December 15th, 2021, Beetlejuce's manager Robert Rooney posted a video to his Instagram^[1] account @bobbyrooney175 in which he's talking to Beet in a hotel room about his career and asking him why he doesn't hang around the people he used to, as in people in the boxing world. Rooney asked him, "What are you doing?" to which Beet responded, "Nothing… Me? Just hanging around." Over the course of a year and a half, the video gained roughly 18,500 views and 1,400 likes (shown below).

On December 28th, 2021, TikToker^[2] @beetandsean uploaded the video clip, captioning it, "Beetle explains why he went off the grid," and earned roughly 12.6 million plays and 1.4 million likes in a year and a half (shown below, left). Later on December 28th, 2021, TikToker^[3] @regancurtisdrift_98 uploaded the first meme to use the video, captioning Beet, "When you get caught doing something you shoudn't be," gaining roughly 188,800 plays and 11,100 likes in a year and a half (shown below, right).

Spread

Months later, on June 20th, 2022, TikToker^[4] @strictlydlx uploaded a video (since deleted) that made an emotional edit with the Beetlejuice video. @strictlydlx was later deleted, moving to an alternate TikTok^[5] account, however, reposts^[6] under the video's sound are still accessible. Also, on June 21st, 2022, YouTuber^[7] Mr Random reposted the video, calling it, "Sad beetlejuice," earning roughly 48,200 views and 1,700 likes in 10 months (shown below).

In early 2023, the video gained traction as an exploitable, greenscreen template. This happened on April 3rd, 2023, when TikToker^[8] @regancurtisdrift_98 posted a follow-up to his December 2021 TikTok,^[3] responding to a comment that wanted it to be a sound. @regancurtisdrift_98's new TikTok^[8] gained roughly 1.5 million plays and 91,700 likes in 17 days (shown below, left). On April 16th, 2023, TikToker^[9] @koosh604 uploaded the first known use of a greenscreen template, earning roughly 430,600 plays and 29,600 likes in four days (shown below, right).

Going into the remainder of April 2023, the meme format continued to trend on TikTok, earning a viral CapCut^[10] template made by Figgy The Feline on April 18th, gaining roughly 45,000 uses and 1,200 likes in two days.