Listening

The "Listening" emote depicts Patrick Bateman from the film American Psycho wearing headphones and appearing deeply absorbed in listening to music. This emote is commonly used to convey that someone is paying close attention or pretending to listen intently to what's being said in a stream. The expression often carries a humorous or sarcastic undertone, suggesting an exaggerated display of focus or interest.

The "Listening" emote originates from a famous scene in the 2000 film American Psycho, where the protagonist Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale) puts on headphones and listens to music with intense concentration before committing a violent act. This particular moment became iconic in internet culture for its representation of focused attention with dark undertones.

The emote is not an official Twitch emote but is available through third-party extensions like BetterTTV (BTTV) or FrankerFaceZ (FFZ), which allow communities to use custom emotes beyond the official Twitch offerings. It gained popularity as part of the broader trend of using recognizable movie scenes as reaction images in online communities.

The "Listening" emote is typically used in Twitch chat in the following contexts:

• When a streamer is explaining something in detail and viewers want to show they're paying attention
• During dramatic moments or when someone is sharing a story or rant
• Sarcastically, to indicate mock interest in something boring or overly dramatic
• When viewers want to convey they're critically evaluating what's being said
• As an ironic response to over-seriousness, leveraging the dark humor associated with the American Psycho character