Mark Zuckerberg Smoking Meats

2016viral videoclassic

Published September 5, 2026

Mark Zuckerberg Smoking Meats is a Facebook Live video from October 2016 in which the Meta CEO stands in his backyard and repeatedly announces that he is smoking meats. The flat, earnest delivery turned the stream into remix fuel for YouTubers and Reddit, spawning years of edits, songified takes and animated riffs on the phrase.

Overview

The joke centers on Zuckerberg's stilted, on-camera delivery of the phrase "smoking meats" as he stands in front of a Big Green Egg and a larger smoker he calls "The General"1. Editors pulled every instance of him saying the line, then looped, chopped and songified them into short clips that lean on the contrast between his rehearsed presentation and a normal backyard cookout.

Much of the humor rides on viewers reading Zuckerberg as robotic or unnatural, a joke that fused with the parallel "Zucc" meme about his appearance and demeanor4. The format spans YouTube supercuts, animated recreations, songified remixes and reaction videos, with the phrase "smoking meats" itself circulating in comment sections whenever Zuckerberg appears on camera.

Origin & Background

Platform
Facebook Live (source) / YouTube (viral spread)
Creator
Mark Zuckerberg
Date
2016

On October 9, 2016, Zuckerberg went live on Facebook from his backyard and streamed himself barbecuing ribs and brisket, walking viewers through his Big Green Egg and a larger smoker he had nicknamed "The General"1. Eater covered the stream the next morning, quoting him saying that two of the most fun things a person can do are "racing cars and cooking meats," and noting his stated preference for eating meat from animals he had killed himself1. The livestream pulled more than 620,000 reactions, 430,000 comments and 20,400 shares within the two years that followed2.

How It Spread

On December 13, 2016, YouTuber Meat uploaded a short edit stitching together every time Zuckerberg says "smoking meats" during the stream, and the video passed 1.1 million views over the next two years3. On June 24, 2018, that same edit hit the front page of the r/videos subreddit5, pushing the clip back into wider circulation almost two years after the original stream.

Other creators built on top of the format across 2017 and 2018. On October 29, 2017, PewDiePie highlighted the moment Zuckerberg reads a viewer comment about the Zucc meme, and h3h3productions reused the same clip on April 12, 2018 in a video titled "Zucc Gets Roasted"4. On August 23, 2018, the Schmoyoho channel released a songified version of the stream6, and on January 4, 2019, YouTuber Tyler Cassidy uploaded an original song called "Smoking These Meats"7.

How to Use This Meme

People typically loop the "smoking meats" audio, drop the phrase into comment threads about Zuckerberg or Meta, or splice the clip into songs, animations and reaction edits. A common convention is to play up the flat, monotone delivery, often pairing it with jokes about Zuckerberg's on-camera demeanor or the parallel Zucc meme.

Frequently Asked Questions