About

“Wash the Fucking Dishes,” is a memorable quote uttered by the character Naomi in the 2005 comedy film Waiting… where a coworker offers her anger management counseling due to her irritable nature. In memes, the clip of Naomi yelling “just wash the fucking dishes and shut the fuck up” is used as a catchphrase and sound effect over videos of people being told to do the dishes, some of which were remixed into songs. In the fall and winter of 2020, dubbed versions of the clip on TikTok became a trend known as “Just Wash the Dishes and Shut TF up Challenge” where people exaggeratedly rushed to do the dishes, often jumping in the sink, after being yelled at.

Origin

The original clip that the meme is pulled from is seen during the comedy Waiting…, which was released on October 7th, 2005. During the scene (featured below), the character Naomi is dealing with frustrating customers at the restaurant when the dishwasher, Bishop, offers her counseling or anger management help to which she replies, “You'd do that for me? Thank you, I appreciate that. But I think I'd rather you just wash the fucking dishes and shut the fuck up! Fucking psychobabble-bullshit asshole!”

The first time the scene is used in a meme is unknown, but the earliest example appears online in an Imgur^[1] post by user fr33m4ryj4n3 on May 15th, 2013. Posted under the caption “Thank You…I Appreciate That..But I Think I'd Rather You Just WASH THE FUCKIN' DISHES AND SHUT THE FUCK UP!” the GIF version of the scene received over 3,700 views, 40 upvotes and six comments in seven years (shown below).

Spread

On April 9th, 2020, TikToker^[2] carom559 uploaded the first version of the sound effect to the platform showing a meme of the original clip from the movie, receiving over 270,000 likes, 6,100 shares and 3,200 comments in eight months (seen below, left). On September 28th, TikToker^[3] jaaah11 posted the first-known version dubbing the clip with a parody reenactment between a couple, receiving over 1.6 million likes, 76,300 shares and 26,500 comments in three months (seen below, right). As of December 2020, the sound has over 22,300 total videos on TikTok.^[4]

Various compilations of the sound effect being used were later posted to YouTube. One such example was uploaded by YouTuber^[5] Trending TikToks on October 3rd, accumulating over 4,100 views in two months (shown below). That same day, YouTuber^[6] JoanneLopes posted another compilation, accumulating over 2,400 views (since deleted).

On December 9th, TikToker^[7] thefarpost posted a version of jaaah11’s video remixed to drums creating a song, which received over 2.3 million likes, 74,800 shares and 22,700 comments in one week (seen below).

Later that day, Justin Whang tweeted^[8] a follow-up adding guitar to the remix, receiving over 96,800 views, 10,300 likes and 1,200 retweets (seen below). On December 11th, Redditor History0407 reposed thefarpost’s version to the /r/PublicFreakout^[9] subreddit, receiving over 10,100 upvotes, 266 comments and several Reddit Awards in five days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References