What I Do 💜

Submission 258

Part of a series on What Is You Talmbout? What I Do?. [View Related Entries]

About

What I Do 💜 refers to a reaction and image macro meme featuring nail and makeup artist Jade Nguyen, aka PolishedByJade. The image shows a stylish Asian woman standing with her legs crossed and her hand on her hip, often shown in the format of a blurry Twitter post that reads, "What I Do." The phrase "What I Do" is in reference to a 2019-era Funny Marco YouTube prank video in which he pranks an Asian woman in a grocery store and breaks character after hearing her say, "What is you talmbout?" and "What I do?" in an AAVE accent. The phrase, "What I Do," alongside the images of the Jade Nguyen woman went viral on TikTok in late August and early September 2024, often incorporating a purple heart emoji.

Origin

On May 19th, 2019, Funny Marco posted a comedy video to his YouTube^[1] page in which he walked around a grocery store and filmed people's reactions after he told them, "You were hella wrong for what you did."

At the 3:44-minute timestamp, Funny Marco comes across an Asian-American woman, who responds to him by saying, "What did I do?" and "What is you talking about," in a thick Southern or Atlanta accent, causing Marco to break character and tell her he's joking.

The woman's accent is often represented in text as her saying, "What I do?" and "What is you talmbout." The video gathered over 330,000 likes in five years (seen below).

Also in 2024, a blurry reaction image of an Asian woman with the text "what I do" above her began to make the rounds online. The earliest known post of the image is a June 15th, 2021, post by Twitter^[2] user @yabbayussy (seen below, left), with X^[3] user @RlCKYRAGE posting an AI-enhanced version of the image on July 30th, 2024, gathering over 75,000 likes in two days (seen below, right).

Spread

Various internet users began posting meme edits of the "What I Do" image in mid-2024, including X^[4] user @lmp3rfect, who posted a version of the image showing pop star Charli XCX on August 1st, 2024, gathering over 400 likes in a month.

On August 27th, X^[5] user @queefbomb posted an edit of the image that read "What I Jew," gathering over 1,000 likes in a week. The user subsequently expanded on this post with an entire thread of "What I Do" edits on August 28th, 2024.

The meme spread to TikTok in late August 2024, with TikToker^[6] @chicken.casseroles posting a video editing the "What I Do" meme to make the woman appear to play tennis. The post gathered over 1.8 million plays and over 270,000 likes in a week (seen below).

More TikTokers latched onto the meme in early September 2024, sometimes overlapping it with the Ellie and Mason House meme that was popularized in August 2024.

For example, TikToker^[7] @nmillz1 posted a video jokingly ordering a "What I Do 💜 Latte" on September 3rd, gathering 1 million views and 200,000 likes in a day.

In early September 2024, a woman named Jade Nguyen^[8] came forward as the lady in the Funny Marco What Is You Talmbout meme, as well as the "What I Do" image. Jade posted a TikTok confirming it as her only account on September 3rd, 2024.

Various Examples

What Is You Talmbout?

What Is You Talmbout? also known as What I Do? is a catchphrase often associated with Hollywood and voice actor Awkwafina, although many internet users also associate the phrase with an Asian-American woman featured in a Funny Marco YouTube video. The phrase "What is you talmbout?" as uttered in an Atlanta accent is often used to joke about women of East-Asian origin speaking in an AAVE accent. Another popular quote sourced from the Funny Marco video is "What I do?" In August 2024, an image of makeup and nail artist PolishedByJade went viral in the What I Do 💜 meme trend, prompting Jade Nguyen to come forward as the person featured in both memes.