Shane Collecting Himself

About

Shane Collecting Himself refers to an edited clip of The Walking Dead television series character Shane Walsh (played by actor Jon Bernthal) burying his face in his hands, closing his eyes and slapping his head as he collects himself, which is typically set to a sped-up version of the song "Violent Dreams" by Kanye West. In the second half of 2024, the scene achieved virality as a video and GIF caption meme format, often being used to express the feelings of suddenly getting unnerved or stressed out.

Origin

On March 11th, 2012, episode 12 "Better Angels" of season two of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead premiered.^[1] In the episode, the character Shane Walsh, portrayed by Jon Bernthal, enters a barn with a plan to kidnap and kill the character Randall. Before he commits to his plan, Shane, visibly agitated, takes a few moments to collect himself, breathing heavily, burying his face in his hands and then slapping himself on the head (video shown below).

On August 25th, 2024, X^[2] user @litteralyme0 posted the earliest found caption meme based on an edited clip from the scene, set to a sped-up version of "Violent Dreams" by Kanye West. The post (shown below) received over 5.6 million views, 12,000 reposts and 132,000 likes in five months (shown below).

Spread

The caption format spread on X / Twitter in the following months, with several posts using the video going viral in late 2024. For example, on November 26th, 2024, X^[3] user @ayeejuju posted a meme based on the format (shown below) that received over 4,900 reposts and 65,000 likes in two months.

On December 27th, 2024, X^[4] user @litteralyme0 posted a caption meme based on the format that gained over 3.3 million views, 14,000 reposts and 287,000 likes in two weeks (shown below).

More memes based on the format were shared online in early January 2025.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References