donowall

The DonoWall emote represents the concept of being completely ignored, similar to the expression "talking to a brick wall." It's primarily used when a viewer makes a donation (a "dono") to a streamer, but the streamer fails to acknowledge or respond to it. The emote visually depicts a person speaking to a brick wall, symbolizing the futility of communication when someone isn't listening or responding.

DonoWall originated from a November 2010 YouTube comedy skit by Maronzio Vance, where he humorously attempts to converse with a literal brick wall to express the frustration of being ignored. The clip became a meme around 2014 across various social media platforms.

The emote itself was created specifically for Twitch on July 1, 2020, when a viewer named FewBreath created a GIF from the original video and uploaded it to BetterTTV (a popular Twitch emote extension). FewBreath initially suggested it for xQc's channel by posting it on xQc's subreddit. The popular streamer xQc quickly adopted it, which helped propel the emote to widespread usage. By September 2021, the emote was reportedly being used on over 28,000 Twitch channels.

DonoWall is commonly used in Twitch chat in the following situations:

• When a streamer ignores or doesn't acknowledge a viewer's donation message
• When a viewer feels their chat message is being overlooked or ignored
• During moments when someone (either a viewer or another person the streamer is communicating with) is getting no response
• As playful banter to highlight when someone is being unintentionally or intentionally ignored

The emote is often spammed in chat to humorously point out these moments of one-sided communication, especially during busy streams when it's easy for messages to get lost in the rapid flow of chat.