Shaq Time Out

Submission 976

Part of a series on Shaquille O'Neal. [View Related Entries]

About

Shaq Time Out, also written Shaq Timeout, refers to a photograph of former NBA player Shaquille O'Neal (Shaq) making a "time out" symbol with his hands while looking seriously into the camera. The photo was originally taken for Robert Kraft's #Timeout Against Hate movement in October 2024. The image of Shaq saying "time out" was used en masse on Twitter / X after its original virality. NBA fans and internet users at large captioned the image, adding jokes about stopping an event, play or incident. Many of the jokes were specific to different fandoms with captions highlighting problematic moments or themes in their favorite subculture.

Origin

On October 10th, 2024, X^[1] user @AdamSchefter shared promo images from the campaign #Timeout Against Hate created by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and other sports commissioners.^[2] One of the images in @AdamSchefter's post showed sports analyst and former NBA player Shaquille O'Neal (Shaq) making a "time out" symbol (shown below). The tweet received over 11.8 million views and 7,800 likes in four days.

The first known meme to use the abovementioned photo was shared by X^[6] user @DaveMcNamee3000 on October 10th, who captioned it, "When I’m at the feminist bookstore and I hear someone say something with classist undertones," receiving over 52,000 likes in four days (shown below).

Spread

A few hours later on October 10th, 2024, X^[3] user @brodieonthecorn posted an almost identical version of the abovementioned meme, instead joking about hearing a microaggression in a Feminist bookstore, receiving over 237,000 likes in four days.

In the following days, viral usage of the Shaq Time Out meme spread online. For instance, on October 11th, X^[4] user @ndtheFisfor tweeted the image and made a joke about Pushin' P, receiving over 67,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Also on October 11th, X^[5] user @benlikessport tweeted the image, adding a caption about the NBA, reading, "When I’m talkin ball with someone and they bring up an advanced stat," gaining over 62,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Usage of the image also spread on Reddit, evident in a post shared to the subreddit /r/Eminem by Redditor^[7] jacksepticeyefanboy on October 12th, who asked, "What Eminem lyric makes you go like this?" gaining over 240 upvotes in two days.

In the following days, the Shaq Time Out meme was commonly used by fandoms to make highly specific jokes about their favorite subculture.

For instance, on October 12th, 2024, X^[8] user @vngelology tweeted the image, adding a caption about the TV show Supernatural, reading, "when I'm watching Supernatural and dean says something weird asf," gaining over 11,000 likes in two days (shown below).