Doodad, Thingamajig, Thingamabob, Whatchamacallit, Doohickey

About

Doodad, Thingamajig, Thingamabob, Whatchamacallit and Doohickey refer to multiple words for wacky devices, inventions and machines which are used in memes to label odd contraptions predominantly present within Chinese viral videos, such as The Design Is Very Human. Settings such as the "Thingamabob Convention" were conceived in which men attended and showed off their contraptions. Memes using the slang synonyms became prevalent on TikTok, Twitter and iFunny in late 2022 and early 2023.

Origin

Whatchamacallit,^[1] thingamajig,^[2] thingamabob,^[3] doohickey^[4] and doodad^[5] are all official, English words according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. They started to be referenced in memetic content and online humor starting in the late 2010s. For instance, the first discovered viral meme that used a "whatchamacallit" synonym was a tweet sent by Twitter^[6] user @Wes10 on September 8th, 2019, that joked about divorcing an imagined wife once she said "doohickey." The tweet gained roughly 6,200 likes in four years (shown below).

Despite the aforementioned tweet, the "whatchamacallit" synonyms became predominantly known for labeling abstract objects, machines and contraptions. The first-known, viral post to enact this concept was a reply from Twitter^[7] user @sukimelt999 sent on June 20th, 2021, that read, "That’s a bing bop, a doodad, and a shlippy wop," and gained roughly 7,100 likes in two years (shown below).

Spread

On October 17th, 2021, Twitter^[8] user @ClutchLikeRomo tweeted, "I thought dude behind her had the DOOHICKEY out," in reference to a gun-like object behind Beyoncé, earning roughly 18,100 likes in two years. On January 3rd, 2022, Twitter^[9] user @eastblessed quote retweeted a TikTok video of a man flying in a contraption, writing, "bro said f--- it let me fly the thingamabob." The QT received roughly 61,700 likes in one year and a repost to the Instagram^[10] account @jokezar on January 5th, where it gained roughly 6 million views and 500,000 likes (shown below).

On January 14th, 2022, iFunnyer^[11] @Aristotelian posted a video of a man watching a metal machine bounce up and down, captioning it, "me at work (I oversee the thingamabob)." Over the course of one year, the post received roughly 32,800 smiles (shown below).

Following the Assassination of Shinzo Abe in mid-2022, many memes surfaced using "whatchamacallit" synonyms in regard to the hand-made gun of the assassin. For instance, on September 3rd, 2023, Twitter^[12] user @PsychoCutNess tweeted, "The virgin CIA pistol versus the chad Doohickey," earning over 14,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). On December 9th, 2022, Redditor ObjectiveCup7924 shared an Ironic Doge Meme to /r/dogelore^[13] that also referenced Abe's death and the hand-made gun, earning roughly 4,400 upvotes in three months (shown below, right).

Going into early 2023, the "whatchamacallit" synonyms became commonplace on TikTok in videos that were similar to iFunnyer^[11] @Aristotelian's meme. For instance, on January 28th, 2023, TikToker^[14] @2005.vauxhall_monaro_vxr posted a video showing "the thingamabob convention," earning roughly 1 million plays and 132,900 likes in two months (shown below).

Related Memes

The Design Is Very Human

"The Design Is Very Human"::https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-design-is-very-human-humg0 is a catchphrase popularized by Chinese TikToker @humg….0, who makes weird and unrealistic contraptions as life hacks meant to solve minor day-to-day problems. The creator first began posting videos sometime before May 2021 prior to his account @hmg….4 being deleted by TikTok in 2022. He continued to post new content under his new username @humg….0 in 2023.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References