Turbulence Guy / A Whole Bunch of Turbulence

About

A Whole Bunch of Turbulence or A Whole Lotta Turbulence is a catchphrase taken from a viral video (and a series of other subsequent videos that stemmed from it) in which a Black man on TikTok Live nicknamed the Turbulence Guy (real name @officialjustjo or Just Jo Official) was seemingly shaking his penis back-and-forth between his legs off camera, making a clapping sound while saying there was a "whole bunch of turbulence," as in, plane turbulence. Screen recordings of his TikTok livestream went viral across social media, spreading to YouTube in early 2023. His "turbulence" videos later became exploitables in memes, falling under the Thugposting meme genre.

Origin

Starting in late 2021, TikToker Just Jo started going viral for his TikTok Lives in which he was seemingly shaking his penis back and forth, making it clap on his inner thighs. The first-known, viral, screen recording of a Just Jo Live was posted by TikToker^[1] @yvngdejiro on October 18th, 2021, showing Just Jo saying, "You gotta go fast, bro." The TikTok gained roughly 2 million plays and 372,100 likes in a year and a half (shown below).

Going into 2022, the aforementioned clip was reposted by YouTubers^[2] and TikTokers.^[3] Meanwhile, Just Jo's TikTok accounts were continually banned from the platform. He cycled through many similar usernames such as @justjoofficial, @justj00official and @justj00official2 going into early 2023. Around the same time, Just Jo went continually viral for his videos that used Ice Spice's song "In Ha Mood."^[4]

Sometime in early 2023, a currently unknown internet user uploaded a screen recording of a then-recent Just Jo TikTok Live in which he was wearing a tan-colored hoodie. In the video, he had his hands up on his head and was telling his viewers that there was a "whole bunch of turbulence," as in, airplane turbulence. Currently, the earliest known upload of the clip was posted by TikToker^[5] @mccreamer609 on February 28th, 2023, which followed the Patrick Bateman Headphones format, gaining roughly 201,400 plays and 30,100 likes in two months (shown below, left). Despite the aforementioned video being its first-known usage, in later months, higher-quality versions of the Live were uploaded to TikTok, such as one post by TikToker^[6] @vexxxxed on April 3rd, 2023 (shown below, right), alluding to a precursor poster in February 2023 that has likely been deleted, removed or banned from the platform.

Y'all hear that thunder and lightning? 'Cause I hear it. A whole bunch of turbulence. A whole bunch of turbulence. Everybody strap your seatbelts. 'Cause it's about to be some turbulence.

Spread

Going into March and April 2023, the video was reposted elsewhere, such as YouTube on March 18th, 2023, by YouTuber^[7] New Yorks Finest, gaining roughly 174,200 views and 5,700 likes in one month. On March 29th, 2023, TikToker^[8] @justenmicrowave uploaded one of the first-known memes that used the sound without the visual, representing himself on an airplane where someone's doing the Thug Shaker, gaining roughly 42,000 plays and 4,900 likes in one month (shown below, left). On April 9th, TikToker^[9] @komi_memes uploaded a similar video, gaining roughly 1.2 million plays and 178,300 likes in 19 days (shown below, right).

Going into late April 2023, more viral iterations surfaced on TikTok.^[10] Meme creators on YouTube also joined the trend. For instance, on April 22nd, 2023, YouTuber^[11] Fugly Productions uploaded an iteration in which Freddy Fazbear was doing the turbulence motion, gaining roughly 2,800 views in six days (shown below).

TikToker Just Jo continued to post to his most recently created TikTok^[12] account @officialjustjo in April 2023.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References