Jingling Keys

About

Jingling Keys is a slang expression used to refer to the notion that someone may find something funny without truly understanding the joke or understanding its history or comedic value, not unlike the ways babies giggle when you jingle keys in front of them. A 2019 YouTube video called "10 Hours of Jingling Keys" is often used as an image macro meme to indicate that someone is very easily amused by something underwhelming.

Origin

Jokes about people jingling keys in front of babies or jingling keys in front of adults in a patronizing way have existed in American sitcoms for over a decade. An early and notable example dates back to January 8th, 2006, when The Simpsons aired an episode that featured a scene in which Homer's father can be seen jingling keys in front of him when he was a baby (seen below).^[1]

On April 30th, 2006, Family Guy aired an episode where Adam West's character was depicted as jingling keys in front of an angry mob in an attempt to distract them (seen below).^[2]

Various Twitter users referenced "jingling keys" in 2015, with user @g0m posting a tweet^[3] that read, "The new HOT meme sweeping the internet: some jingling keys. Social media outlets are BLOWING UP as people coo happily and grab at the keys," on February 26th, 2015 (seen below, left). On August 20th, Twitter^[4] user @randygdub posted a tweet referencing the phrase as well, gathering over 200 likes in eight years (seen below, right).

Spread

The first viral tweet to use the phrase was posted on August 24th, 2019, by Twitter user @andylevy.^[5] The tweet read, "blaming video games for mass shootings is meant to have the same effect on old people that jingling keys has on crying babies," and gathered over 12,000 likes in four years (seen below).

On September 29th, 2019, YouTuber^[6] MyAbridged posted a video titled, "10 Hours of Jingling Keys," gathering over 140,000 views in four years (seen below). A screenshot of this video became a prevalent image macro meme in subsequent years.

On January 20th, 2021, Twitter^[7] user @SuperMegaShow posted a screenshot from the aforementioned YouTube video, gathering over 4,000 likes in two years (seen below, left). On May 25th, 2023, Twitter^[8] user @ShimadaTiger posted the meme as well, gathering nearly 300 likes in two months (seen below, right).

The screenshot of the jingling keys video is often invoked in discussions about AI Art as seen in the following Tweet reply by @pissduggery on May 11th, 2023.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References