What the Fuck Do DJs Actually Do?

Submission 28,028

Part of a series on Viral Videos. [View Related Entries]

About

What the Fuck Do DJs Actually Do? is a viral video in which a girl cries while asking viewers what it is that DJs actually do, believing that they remix their songs ahead of time and questioning the functionality of the dials on their turntables. The video was posted in July 2023 by TikToker @madelineargy and went viral over the following days, inspiring DJs to remix or sample it and showcase what they do when performing.

Origin

On July 20th, 2023, TikToker^[1] @madelineargy, aka Madz, posted a video in which she cries and asks viewers what DJs actually do. She says, "I don't think they're remixing the song on the spot, I think they make it ahead of time, so what dials are they pressing? […] Is it a volume dial? Is it even connected to anything?" The video gained over 29.4 million views in the next two weeks (shown below).

Spread

The video gained viral spread over the following days. It was reposted by Twitter^[2] user @impreshn on July 21st, 2023, garnering over 5,600 likes and 600,000 views in 10 days. On that day, TikToker^[3] @qnoematata posted a video in which he remixes the audio of Madz in real time, garnering over 291,000 views in 10 days (shown below, left). On July 22nd, TikToker^[4] and DJ @hedexuk posted a response to the video in which he shows himself performing, garnering over 2.1 million views in just over a week (shown below, right).

On July 25th, TikToker^[5] @loudluxury posted a remix of the song, played while displaying the video multiple times on a wall during a show, garnering over 15 million views in six days (shown below).

On July 28th, YouTuber^[6] and DJ, DJ Phil Harris, posted a response to the video in which he gives a brief explanation of what DJs do during live shows while showing what each dial and control does, garnering over 13,000 views in three days (shown below).

On July 29th, 2023, TikToker^[7] and DJ @glasspetals posted a remix of the video that gained over 51 million views in two days (shown below).