About

What Does He Even Do? refers to a reaction image and exploitable meme format derived from a YouTube thumbnail by the channel BlackySpeakz. The original video, uploaded in mid-2017, discusses the extent of DJ and record producer DJ Khaled's musical contributions in various projects and collaborations.

Screenshots of the video's thumbnail began to circulate on various social media platforms around 2022, typically edited and utilized to comment on the perceived uselessness of a character, athlete or other public figure, who is swapped out with Khaled in the image. The meme is also used similarly to other YouTube thumbnails turned into reaction images or stickers on TikTok, such as Our Brains Are Shrinking or He Hid For 30 Years.

Origin

The "What Does He Even Do?" image originated as a thumbnail for a YouTube^[1] video uploaded on June 23rd, 2017, by the channel BlackySpeakz. The video, titled "What does DJ Khaled ACTUALLY DO?" discusses DJ Khaled's role (or lack thereof) in the music production process, which has long been a topic of discourse online.^[4] As of April 2026, the video has received over 3 million views, 51,000 likes and 8,500 comments, many of which reference the thumbnail being used as a meme.

The image quickly gained significant traction as an exploitable meme template, predominantly edited to include fictional characters and athletes swapped out for DJ Khaled. The image's wide applicability, as well as its obvious messaging, made it an effective way to call someone "useless" or otherwise unimpressive.

According to a reverse image search on TinEye,^[2] edits featuring various athletes began surfacing on X / Twitter sometime in mid-2022, with users using the exploitable or reaction image to slander various players for poor performance.

The earliest known example of the thumbnail being used as a reaction meme comes from a post by X^[5] user @lilphiltrill on May 25th, 2022, which was posted in a reply to an article about NBA player Udonis Haslem of the Miami Heat. The tweet reply garnered 30 likes in four years.

Spread

The What Does He Even Do? meme continued to spread on X / Twitter as both a reaction image and exploitable over the following months and years, eventually spreading to other platforms.

On January 12th, 2024, Redditor Faithlessness_Tall posted an edited version of the image featuring the character Megumi Fushiguro from the anime and manga series Jujutsu Kaisen (JJK) to the /r/Jujutsufolk^[3] subreddit. Though the post did not gain much traction, it showcases a typical use of the exploitable version of the meme.

On March 16th, 2026, TikToker^[6] @fivbrtv posted a video version including the meme that was centered around hyraxes, which garnered over 253,300 likes and 1,000 comments in a month.

On March 24th, 2026, TikTok^[7] user @ballinglikeamcflurry posted a compilation video of YouTube thumbnails commonly used on the platform as memes at the time, which included What Does He Even Do? alongside others like An IQ Too High. The post received over 100 likes in two weeks.

As the meme has continued to spread over the years, many internet users have returned to the original YouTube^[1] video to express their gratitude to @BlackySpeakz for making the iconic thumbnail.

Various Examples

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Search interest

External References