About

Listening to X on Shuffle Be Like is a video caption meme format that imagines a person's mood rapidly changing while listening to a shuffled mix of songs by a single band or artist. Popularized by a 2020 meme about Eminem, the format saw gradual spread in the following years using variations of the phrasal template "listening to X on shuffle be like." The format is similar to Me Listening to My Completely Unorganized Playlist.

Origin

Prior to March 11th, 2020, animation artist Doubt Cast posted a two-part animation of a person experiencing two moods, first smiling and headbanging and then standing in the rain under an umbrella (original post no longer discoverable).

On March 11th, 2020, Twitter^[1] user @binhothusasst captioned the video, "When you have Stray Kids' song on shuffle," setting it to "Miroh," "Mistape 2," "My Pace" and other songs by the band, with the songs changing together with the mood swings in the video. The post (shown below) gained over 56,900 views, 1,800 retweets and 3,300 likes in three years.

When you have Stray Kids' song on shuffle.. pic.twitter.com/jRUqNAZS3v

— 🐽 (IA) (@binhothusiasst) March 11, 2020

Spread

Prior to March 14th, 2020, the Instagram account @eminem_bloodz posted an Eminem version of the meme (post no longer available). On March 14th, iFunny^[2] user BlueJae246 reposted the Instagram post, with the meme being featured and accumulating over 123,400 smiles on the app in three years (shown below).

The tweet prompted further spread of the format in the following weeks, with the memes originally using the Doubt Cast animation. For example, on March 18th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @exoxskz posted a version of the meme that gained over 65,100 views, 5,600 retweets and 6,100 likes in three years (shown below).

When u got exo songs on shuffle pic.twitter.com/cg2YbHnOEo

— ً (@exoxskz) March 18, 2020

Starting in 2021, the caption format decoupled from the original video, with users starting to combine the caption with various images and videos. For example, on May 4th, 2021, Instagram^[4] user sevkije_arianator posted an Ariana Grande version of the meme that gained over 22,900 likes in one year (shown below, left). On July 12th, 2021, TikTok^[5] user ex0tic.nikkie posted a Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video caption meme that received over 487,000 views and 109,700 likes in two years (shown below, right).

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6984244439392849157

The format maintained its popularity across social media in 2022 and 2023, primarily as a video caption format. For example, on March 10th, 2022, YouTube^[6] user bidooflover25 posted a meme that gained over 810,000 views in one year (shown below, left). On January 3rd, YouTube^[7] user Craigster posted a Gorillaz version of the meme that received over 1.1 million views in one month (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Me Listening to My Completely Unorganized Playlist

Me Listening to My Unorganized Playlist refers to a series of memes based on a viral supercut of YouTuber Young Dabo listening through a "400-hour-long unorganized playlist," his reactions changing drastically with the mood of the songs comprising it. In September 2022, the format gained virality on Twitter and Reddit as users replaced songs from the video with their favorite music albums and soundtracks.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References