Shevtsov Is Shocked on Stream (What Are Hot Tubs)

What's in the shot

A man in glasses with short light hair looks off to the side of the camera with his mouth open and his eyes extremely wide. White wired earbuds are in his ears, a large studio microphone with a metal mesh grille is visible to the right in the frame, and he's wearing a dark jacket or hoodie. The background is a flat gray-blue, the lighting dim, as if it were evening in the room.

From a single still, there's no way to tell what he's looking at, so a caption or the sound is what sets up what exactly stunned him.

What the hot tubs section is

To understand the joke, you need the context of Twitch in spring 2021. The platform saw a wave of broadcasts where creators chatted with viewers while sitting in swimsuits in hot tubs or inflatable pools. This sparked debate about whether such content should be allowed, and on May 23, 2021, Twitch introduced a separate, mandatory category called 'Pools, Hot Tubs & Beaches.' It was described as a temporary measure letting viewers filter out such streams and letting advertisers control where their ads appeared.

For Russian-speaking audiences, the category's English name prompted the question 'wait, what are hot tubs,' even though in English it just means a jacuzzi.

Who Shevtsov is and how the meme started

According to a Ukrainian outlet, Alexey Shevtsov is a Ukrainian streamer and YouTuber who runs the channel Itpedia. In June 2021, during a broadcast, he opened the Hot Tubs section and reacted with bulging eyes and a wide-open mouth. Viewers liked the reaction, and they started making video clips out of this moment.

One popular version sets the clip to the song 'Sweet Dreams' by Puppetmaster. Creators then started drawing Shevtsov — ranging from simple sketches to 2D and 3D animation — while keeping the original audio. These versions made their way onto TikTok as a way to express surprise in everyday situations. The exact dates of the first clips are unknown, so the timeline should be considered approximate.

Example captions

The caption 'When you opened your phone settings and saw how many hours you'd spent on that game' places the reaction on an unwelcome discovery. The meme works because the shock on the face is proportional to the number, not to the mundane event itself.

The caption 'Me when they showed me what a real renovation actually costs' shifts the surprise to the price: the more ordinary the situation, the stronger the contrast with the dramatic face.

The caption 'Mom, while I'm explaining what's called a "small edit" at work' is a joke about an underestimated task: the listener's imagined fright is projected onto the character's face.

The caption 'First time logging into the bank's website after the holidays' fits because of the feeling of 'I wish I hadn't looked.'

How to use it and what to keep in mind

The template is versatile for reacting to something unexpected and slightly alarming. Its strength is that the emotion reads instantly: wide eyes and an open mouth are familiar to everyone and need no explanation. The shot also works well as a reply in a chat when words aren't enough. It's best to pick everyday occasions rather than anything explicit: the picture itself is neutral, and the original cause of the surprise shouldn't dictate the tone. There's no need to build jokes around the streamer's personality — his reaction in the shot is enough.

This is a still frame rather than an animation, so the caption should be a short phrase that makes sense without sound.