Rumpelstiltskin Sliding In a Chair

Submission 3,147

Part of a series on Shrek. [View Related Entries]

About

Rumpelstiltskin Sliding In a Chair refers to a scene from the Shrek film Shrek Forever After in which the character Rumpelstiltskin slides in a chair while the King and Queen are discussing something in the foreground. The scene became a meme on TikTok in late 2023. The trend involved object labeling the King, Queen and Rumpelstiltskin. The text for Rumpelstiltskin was most often an idea, action or personality trait that interrupted or interfered with a scenario or task. The video memes were commonly paired with the song "Earned It" by The Weeknd from the Fifty Shades of Grey movie as well as the song "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Can You Rock?

Origin

On May 21st, 2010, the animated film Shrek Forever After was released in American theaters.^[1] In one scene of the film, the King and Queen visit Rumpelstiltskin and he's seen sliding in his chair between the couple while they're discussing something in the foreground (YouTube^[2] upload shown below).

Currently, the first known meme to use the scene was posted by TikToker^[3] @leedjarin on September 30th, 2023. The video used the song "Earned It"^[4] by The Weeknd from the Fifty Shades of Grey movie and added text overlay reading, "Me when someone mentions shots." The video earned roughly 8.5 million plays and 1.8 million likes in one month (shown below).

Spread

Going into October 2023, the format became commonplace on TikTok. For instance, on October 2nd, 2023, TikToker^[5] @gab3.itch22 used a POV caption about getting a "rolling chair in class," gaining roughly 7.2 million plays and 2 million likes in one month (shown below, left). On October 10th, 2023, TikToker^[6] @hagan.martin posted an iteration about becoming Batman, gaining roughly 6.3 million plays and 1.1 million likes in 20 days (shown below, right).

On October 19th, 2023, TikToker^[7] @orangeman4205 posted a similar meme about joining the Marine Corps, gaining roughly 1.5 million plays and 287,800 likes in 11 days (shown below). The video used an alternative sound which was the song "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Can You Rock? The sound^[8] for the song also gained various memes that used the Rumpelstiltskin format, amassing over 9,000 posts by October 30th, 2023.