Rubbing Hands Emoji

About

Rubbing Hands Emoji, sometimes called the "Scheming Emoji," refers to an emoji meme that grew popular in 2023 and 2024, primarily due to memes following the phrasal template, When The Function Got X and "When The Hangout Has X." The meme is part of a series of emoji-based memes that grew popular in the early 2020s.

Origin

The "Rubbing Hands Emoji" was first posted to Shutterstock^[1] on October 3rd, 2018, by contributor Yayayoyo. The emoji was named, "Scheming villain emoticon rubbing his hands."

The earliest known use of the emoji as a meme is a January 13th, 2023 post by Instagram^[2] page @pastor.flacc, who wrote, "When the function has a jungle gym," over a screenshot of the rubbing hands emoji. The post gathered over 5,000 likes in a year (seen below).

Spread

Variations of the phrase "When the function got X" began to appear online in 2023, often paired with rubbing hands emoji. On August 5th, 2023, Instagram^[3] user @quirkedup_paulyshawty posted an exploited Whisper post with the emoji, writing, "When the function got Crack," gaining roughly 4,900 likes in three weeks (shown below, left).

On August 12th, X user @mylifeaslitliz posted a recaption reading, "Spinach and artichoke dip," gaining roughly 47,800 likes in 17 days (shown below, right).

When The Hangout Has X

The phrase "When The Hangout Has X" began making the rounds in 2024, often paired with the scheming emoji. On June 1st, 2024, X^[4] account @emonormie posted a version of the meme that read, "When the hangout has structure or is activity based," gathering over 200,000 likes in three weeks (seen below, left).

On June 20th, 2024, X^[5] user @mishricci posted a version of the meme that read, "three person groupchat with the weird name," gathering over 200,000 likes in three days (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References