Mans Not Hot

2017viral videoclassic

"Mans Not Hot" is a 2017 British viral rap parody by comedian Michael Dapaah, delivered in character as Roadman Shaq during a Fire in the Booth freestyle on BBC Radio 1Xtra. The clip's absurd mouth-made "ting goes skrrahh" gun ad-libs and the deadpan catchphrase "man's not hot" turned into two overlapping Twitter formats within days of the upload.

catchphrase memesbritish memeship hop memesparody song memes2017 memes

Overview

"Mans Not Hot" is a British rap parody delivered in character by comedian Michael Dapaah, who plays a satirical road-rapper called Roadman Shaq during a 2017 Fire in the Booth session on BBC Radio 1Xtra2. The clip's centrepiece is Shaq scatting a string of absurd mouth-made gun ad-libs, best transcribed as "the ting goes skrrahh, pap pap ka ka ka, skidiki-pap-pap and a pu pu drrr boom," over a straight-faced grime beat1. Paired with the deadpan line "man's not hot," delivered while Shaq is wrapped in an oversized winter parka, the two moments went viral across Twitter within days of the upload4.

The joke works on two layers. The syllables are so nonsensical that Twitter users started transcribing them from memory and getting them wrong on purpose, and the wrong transcriptions became their own running gag4. The phrase "man's not hot" itself became a punchline about stubbornly refusing to take off a heavy jacket, usually written as a two-line skit where someone begs the subject to strip down6. Roadman Shaq also produced a spinoff catchphrase from the same freestyle called "Quick Maths," pulled from the line "2 plus 2 is 4 minus 3 is 1, quick maths!"3.

How It Spread

Twitter split the two lines into separate templates inside 48 hours. On August 30, @Krieg_La_Flare grafted the "man's not hot" line onto a Jon-and-Dany Game of Thrones exchange and pulled 12,900 retweets in six days3. Two days later @KubrickJr paired the line with a photo of a man in a full snowsuit and hit 25,600 likes in three days3.

The audio-dub angle ran on its own track. On September 2, @DolanDark laid the rap over Big Ben's final chimes and cleared 80,000 retweets in three days1. The next day, @lilbabycurl matched the ad-libs to a slow-motion clip of fries hitting hot oil, which pulled 149,000 retweets and 237,000 likes inside two days1. Twitter published a dedicated Moments page on September 4, and The Fader, Complex and BuzzFeed all filed writeups the same week124.

Dapaah leaned in. On September 22 he issued "Man's Not Hot" as an official single, this time credited to a slimmer Big Shaq persona3. The music video went up on his YouTube channel on October 25, 2017, and later cleared 447 million views, 6.4 million likes and 343,000 comments over eight years3. On October 11 Shaquille O'Neal walked out to a Roots cover of the song on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, laughed, and said "No"; the clip crossed 1.3 million views in three weeks3. Shaq answered with his own diss track over the same beat two days later, and Big Man Shaq replied in character on Bleacher Report on October 243.

How to Use This Meme

Two formats coexist. The catchphrase one is a short scripted exchange where someone tells the subject to take off their jacket and the subject answers "Babes... man's not hot," usually pinned to a photo of a person clearly dressed for winter in summer heat6. The audio-dub format takes the "ting goes" ad-libs and drops them over unrelated footage, typically something loud, mechanical or explosive, so the mouth-noises stand in for the real sound effects1. A text-only variant just tries to spell the ad-libs from memory, which almost never matches anyone else's attempt4.

Cultural Impact

Fire in the Booth reactions rarely cross over outside grime fandom, so Dapaah's freestyle stood out against earlier sessions by Stormzy and J Hus by reaching a mainstream audience inside a week1. Complex noted that the song was already being played at real events by early September2. The Shaquille O'Neal exchange pushed it further out: the Tonight Show band cover, Shaq's diss track and Big Man Shaq's Bleacher Report reply all landed in October 20173. Dapaah went on The Breakfast Club on October 30 to confirm the beef with O'Neal was for laughs3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Mans Not Hot

2017viral videoclassic

"Mans Not Hot" is a 2017 British viral rap parody by comedian Michael Dapaah, delivered in character as Roadman Shaq during a Fire in the Booth freestyle on BBC Radio 1Xtra. The clip's absurd mouth-made "ting goes skrrahh" gun ad-libs and the deadpan catchphrase "man's not hot" turned into two overlapping Twitter formats within days of the upload.

catchphrase memes british memes hip hop memes parody song memes 2017 memes

Overview

"Mans Not Hot" is a British rap parody delivered in character by comedian Michael Dapaah, who plays a satirical road-rapper called Roadman Shaq during a 2017 Fire in the Booth session on BBC Radio 1Xtra2. The clip's centrepiece is Shaq scatting a string of absurd mouth-made gun ad-libs, best transcribed as "the ting goes skrrahh, pap pap ka ka ka, skidiki-pap-pap and a pu pu drrr boom," over a straight-faced grime beat1. Paired with the deadpan line "man's not hot," delivered while Shaq is wrapped in an oversized winter parka, the two moments went viral across Twitter within days of the upload4.

The joke works on two layers. The syllables are so nonsensical that Twitter users started transcribing them from memory and getting them wrong on purpose, and the wrong transcriptions became their own running gag4. The phrase "man's not hot" itself became a punchline about stubbornly refusing to take off a heavy jacket, usually written as a two-line skit where someone begs the subject to strip down6. Roadman Shaq also produced a spinoff catchphrase from the same freestyle called "Quick Maths," pulled from the line "2 plus 2 is 4 minus 3 is 1, quick maths!"3.

How It Spread

Twitter split the two lines into separate templates inside 48 hours. On August 30, @Krieg_La_Flare grafted the "man's not hot" line onto a Jon-and-Dany Game of Thrones exchange and pulled 12,900 retweets in six days3. Two days later @KubrickJr paired the line with a photo of a man in a full snowsuit and hit 25,600 likes in three days3.

The audio-dub angle ran on its own track. On September 2, @DolanDark laid the rap over Big Ben's final chimes and cleared 80,000 retweets in three days1. The next day, @lilbabycurl matched the ad-libs to a slow-motion clip of fries hitting hot oil, which pulled 149,000 retweets and 237,000 likes inside two days1. Twitter published a dedicated Moments page on September 4, and The Fader, Complex and BuzzFeed all filed writeups the same week124.

Dapaah leaned in. On September 22 he issued "Man's Not Hot" as an official single, this time credited to a slimmer Big Shaq persona3. The music video went up on his YouTube channel on October 25, 2017, and later cleared 447 million views, 6.4 million likes and 343,000 comments over eight years3. On October 11 Shaquille O'Neal walked out to a Roots cover of the song on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, laughed, and said "No"; the clip crossed 1.3 million views in three weeks3. Shaq answered with his own diss track over the same beat two days later, and Big Man Shaq replied in character on Bleacher Report on October 243.

How to Use This Meme

Two formats coexist. The catchphrase one is a short scripted exchange where someone tells the subject to take off their jacket and the subject answers "Babes... man's not hot," usually pinned to a photo of a person clearly dressed for winter in summer heat6. The audio-dub format takes the "ting goes" ad-libs and drops them over unrelated footage, typically something loud, mechanical or explosive, so the mouth-noises stand in for the real sound effects1. A text-only variant just tries to spell the ad-libs from memory, which almost never matches anyone else's attempt4.

Cultural Impact

Fire in the Booth reactions rarely cross over outside grime fandom, so Dapaah's freestyle stood out against earlier sessions by Stormzy and J Hus by reaching a mainstream audience inside a week1. Complex noted that the song was already being played at real events by early September2. The Shaquille O'Neal exchange pushed it further out: the Tonight Show band cover, Shaq's diss track and Big Man Shaq's Bleacher Report reply all landed in October 20173. Dapaah went on The Breakfast Club on October 30 to confirm the beef with O'Neal was for laughs3.

Frequently Asked Questions