The Shining Typewriter / Shelley Duvall Typewriter Scene

About

The Shining Typewriter, also known as Shelley Duvall Typewriter Scene, is an exploitable meme that depicts a scene from Stanley Kubrick's 1980 thriller The Shining in which the character Wendy (played by American actress Shelley Duvall) discovers the results of months of Jack's (Jack Nicholson) work. Online, a screenshot of the scene has been used as an exploitable image macro since October 2018 on Facebook, Twitter / X and Imgflip, with people replacing the "All Work and No Play" text in the typewriter with humorous catchphrases, internet slang and other references or terms.

Origin

Shelley Duvall's typewriter scene occurs in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, which shows Wendy discovering the results of months of Jack's "work." The scene originally premiered in theaters on December 25th, 1980, and was later posted online to YouTube^[1] by the channel @MOVIECLIPS on May 27th, 2011, amassing more than 1.5 million views and 12,000 likes in 13 years.

On October 28th, 2018, Facebook^[2] user ChrisBrecheensWritingAboutWriting posted one of the earliest examples of memetic content about the The Shining typewriter meme, which features a screenshot of the scene paired with the caption "You should be writing." The post (seen below) amassed more than 150 reactions and 28 shares in six years.

Spread

On May 15th, 2022, a template version with a blank paper in the The Shining's typewriter was posted on Imgflip^[3] by an unknown user (seen below). On June 24th, 2023, Imgflip^[4] user @Mario_Speedwagon added the lyrics of the Vengaboys song "We Like to Party" into the paper in the typewriter (seen below, right), which garnered more than 605 views in one year.

Shelley Duvall's typewriter meme also went viral on X in June 2024, as user @EmilioEmm^[5] posted a version of the film's screenshot on June 10th, 2024, featuring the Send It To Me Rachel catchphrase. The post (seen below) amassed over 49,000 likes and 3,900 reposts in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References