Jennifer Lawrence “What Do You Mean?”

Submission 48,200

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About

Jennifer Lawrence “What Do You Mean?” is a viral video and exploitable clip of actress Jennifer Lawrence on Hot Ones repeatedly saying “What do you mean?” in a panic after eating a chicken wing with hot sauce on it. The video became the subject of memes on Twitter and TikTok in late June through July 2023, often used alongside captions about something shocking, upsetting or panic-inducing.

Origin

On June 22nd, 2023, actress Jennifer Lawrence appeared on First We Feast’s YouTube^[1] talk show Hot Ones to promote her film No Hard Feelings. Around the 19:58 mark, the host Sean Evans starts shaking a bottle of hot sauce and Jennifer Lawrence, with tears in her eyes from the last hot wing, says, “What do you mean? What do you mean by shaking it? What are you doing? What do you mean? What do you mean? What do you mean?” The video gained over 8.9 million views in two weeks (shown below).

That day, the @firstwefeat TikTok^[2] page posted a clip compiling all of Jennifer Lawrence's reactions to each wing during the episode, ending with the "what do you mean" clip, garnering over 56 million views in two weeks. Later that day, TikTokers began to use the clip in memes. For example, TikToker^[3] @laurenbonafede posted the video, captioned, "when you're an introvert and your boss tells you to present something to a client," garnering over 1.8 million views in two weeks (shown below).

Spread

On June 23rd, 2023, the @firstwefeast TikTok^[9] page posted the isolated clip of Lawrence saying the line, garnering over 14 million views in two weeks. On the same day, Twitter^[4] user @antlershunter posted the clip, writing, "me watching yellowjackets s2 finale," garnering over 3,000 likes in two weeks. On June 24th, TikToker^[10] @tbr_eventually used the original sound for the @firstwefeast upload in a lip dub, garnering over 836,000 views in two weeks (shown below).

On June 25th, Twitter^[5] user @mockingjvys reposted the video along with a caption referencing The Hunger Games, garnering over 81,600 likes in just under two weeks (shown below, left). On June 26th, Twitter^[6] user @saoirceronan posted another version of the meme, garnering over 57,200 likes in the same rough span of time (shown below, right). Later that day, Buzzfeed^[7] published an article compiling examples of the meme.

On June 27th, YouTuber^[8] Green Screens by Murdoink posted a green-screened version of the clip, garnering over 8,000 views in just over a week (shown below).

The green screen started to see use on TikTok over the following days. For example, on June 28th, TikToker^[11] @gotdarot posted a meme that garnered over 567,000 views in a week (shown below, left). On July 5th, TikToker^[12] @hanzememes posted a version that gained over 17,000 views in two days (shown below, right).