About

Shaking My Head the Whole Time is a catchphrase used in a series of jokes describing humorous scenarios in which people publicly do something that could considered controversial, such as reading a controversial book, and shake their head horizontally the entire time to signal to others that they strongly disagree with the message. Spawned by a viral tweet, the format has been used since late December 2020. The format is similar to the Screw Loose Emoji meme.

Origin

On December 29th, 2020, X^[1] user @metalgearobama posted a joke about reading Adolf Hitler's autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf on a bus and shaking his head the whole time to let other passengers know that he doesn't agree with the book. The joke (shown below) received over 21,000 reposts and 300,000 likes prior to being deleted.

Spread

On December 31st, 2020, X^[2] user @ZeroSuitCamus made the earliest found joke reusing the format, a joke about reading Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita on a train. The post (shown below) received over 360 reposts and 4,300 likes in four years.

The format maintained a presence on X / Twitter in the following years. For example, on July 28th, 2023, X^[3] user @LeCinephiles posted a joke about the biographical film Oppenheimer that gained over 2,500 reposts and 49,000 likes in two years (shown below).

Related Memes

Screw Loose Emoji

The Screw Loose Emoji is a vector graphic emoticon and emoji that is making an incredulous expression while twirling a finger around his temple, as if to indicate that someone is crazy or has a screw loose.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References