Remix by Keane Eacobellis

Since its inception, TikTok has been the place to go for all the latest viral dances, sounds, and popular video trends. Typically, a sound is created from a section of a popular musician’s song, but there are times when TikTok creators actually come up with their own unique sounds.

Sometimes they’re pulled from TV shows like Family Feud or video games like Super Mario Kart. Of course, if you’re an active TikTok user, then you already know this, and if you’ve been on the app recently, then you’ve probably noticed several videos using the “Eat Your Vegetables” sound. But what is it and how did it start? 

What is the “Eat Your Vegetables” sound? 

The sound first began with former TikToker Miss Kadie ⏤ also known as That Vegan Teacher ⏤ posted a video of herself stuffing her face with the lettuce while shouting out in a high pitch voice, “Eat your vegetables!” Unfortunately, the Vegan Teacher was banned from TikTok in Feb. 2021 for violating community guideline after she attacked other TikTokers like KallMeKris for their beliefs.

However, The Vegan Teacher’s voice and message are still being heard long after her departure from the platform thanks to another TikToker called sulfateoctagon.

According to Know Your Meme, in September of last year, the TikTok user took The Vegan Teacher’s soundbite and remixed it with the song “And to Those I Love, Thanks For Sticking Around.” They then used a clip from the video game Grand Theft Auto featuring an avatar jumping high into the sky and spinning around before crashing into the surrounding rocks.

Since its original post on Sept. 17, sulfateoctagon’s video has received 49 million views and 7.9 million likes, prompting all kinds of TikTokers to use the sound.

So far, TikTok star Gangsta Granny has received 4 million likes and 21 million views on her video using the sound. Even TikTok creator turned social media star Addison Rae has gotten 40 million views and almost six million likes after using it to show off her horseback riding on the beach.

Of course, there are tons of viral sounds, clips, and transitions that have proven their viral potential on the app these last few years, but if you’re looking for an easy way to get noticed, the “Eat Your Vegetables” sound ⏤ paired with a great clip ⏤ is definitely going to help land you on someone’s For You page.

If TikTok has taught us anything about who’s going to be next to ride the platform’s algorithm to media stardom, it’s to expect the unexpected. You never know who’s just one funny sketch or choreographed dance routine away from millions of views. One of the video-sharing service’s newest stars comes from an unlikely place to find social media’s hot new influencer: a US Army base.

User “thekeeblerelf” has gained a few million followers who’ve joined in to see her frequent videos spotlighting her life as a military police officer. Keebler – also known by the handle Kayc – first began posting videos in October of last year, but it was her videos of day-to-day military life that earned her so many followers.

Keebler’s popularity is no doubt boosted by her appearance. She does indeed possess somewhat elfin features, punctuated by a pixie-ish haircut. She’s a far cry from the stereotypical hypermasculine image that comes to most people’s minds when they think of soldiers or military police officers. But her videos show she’s more than capable of handling her job.

There’s no telling what, if anything, Keebler will parlay her newfound fame into or even if she’ll continue to post anything past her time in the Army. But it’s a safe assumption that she’ll be keeping her followers, many of which are likely to be her fellow servicemembers, for at least as long as she has the time.

TikTok user Lucydasshh’s latest series of videos on the social media platform has blown up, earning millions of views. It’s not over her performance of the latest dance trend, though. Instead, in a move more similar to a Jerry Springer episode than a music video, the hairstylist has documented how she caught her boyfriend texting another woman and just how she planned to address the issue.

In a text overlay to her first video, which shows Lucy and her sleeping boyfriend in a car, she stated via a text overlay, “Last night I went through his phone and caught him texting some girl from another state. They been talking for a while now, and he agreed to go on a date with her today.”

Whoops.

She went on,” I texted her back to send me location and deleted the message. Today I told him I needed to run out of town for a family emergency. He doesn’t know we on our way to meet the girl together.”

Talk about a literal rude awakening.

Lucy uploaded a new video of the confrontation that followed eight hours later. The utter chaos of the scene, not to mention the achingly loud background music, makes it fairly difficult to discern just what exactly is happening. What is apparent is that her boyfriend was ashamed enough to grab the phone out of her hands. Some commenters are calling the video out as staged, but the Brooklyn hairstylist seems to be sticking to her guns, even captioning the video, “I cannot make this up yall!!!”

No news on whether Lucy will post any other follow-up videos, but users are definitely interested in seeing what, if any, fall out will occur next. Lucy did post in the comments, “Storytime tomorrow y’all stay tuned! Ima go live & give y’all some tea.”

Another relatable TikTok trend is taking off on the platform, as users act out real-life situations to a catchy ’90s tune.

What is the ‘act like you know’ trend?

The latest trend to pick up steam on TikTok, the ‘act like you know’ trend, sees users poking fun at a range of real-world scenarios. They’re taking aim at everything from trying to remember someone’s name to snatching up those delicious sweet rolls at Texas Roadhouse.

Each video taking part in the trend is soundtracked by LaShun Pace’s 1996 track “Act Like You Know.” The trend leans on the song’s relevant lyrics, which simply repeat “act like you know” with increasing intensity. As such, videos typically present a humorous or racy situation in which the truth is obvious but ignored.

The trend has become home to a wealth of fresh videos poking fun at pretty much any scenario in which willful ignorance comes into play. Creators are taking particular joy in poking fun at their parents, and their purposeful cluelessness when it comes to their children having sex.

A number of LGBTQ creators also jumped on the trend, poking fun at family members for ignoring the clear signs of their sexual orientation.

Some creators are even poking fun at the lyrics themselves, interpreting the words in a starkly literal way.

The versatility of the ‘act like you know’ trend lends itself to an abundance of different takes, leading the trend to encompass a huge swathe of different topics.

We’ve all been in a situation or two where we’d prefer to act oblivious, after all.

Image via TikTok

If you’ve been filling your downtime hours by scrolling relentlessly through TikTok lately – and who amongst us hasn’t? – you may have noticed a new ubiquitous phrase that left you scratching your head. It’s not the first time a new phrase or term has leaped into the popular consciousness from the user video service. Remember “naur”? No? okay, well, at least let us clear up “abow” for you.

“Abow” is blowing up because of its prominence in the song “Throw it Back” by ShantiiP and TarioP, one of the more ubiquitous pieces of music backgrounds on the platform- it’s been used in over 10,000 videos. Although there is no specific dance trend following the song, posters have placed particular emphasis on the song’s odd new terminology.

Warning: The song does contain fairly extensive use of profanity.

So what does it mean? Well, many users don’t seem to know or care, while some are even falsely attributing the term’s origin as Arabic or Turkish, but the phrase is actually from the same place that brought us IKEA and smorgasbord, Sweden. It’s is an idiom meaning “damn” or “wow.”

No telling how firmly the term will lock itself into the general American teen vocab. It may be as lasting as “cool,” but it is just as likely to go back to being incomprehensible to anyone but a Swede, given the normal lifespan of a TikTok trend. The hashtag #abow has over 57 million views and counting currently, so we can only wait and see whether the term becomes common coinage.

Over the last few years, TikTok has graced pop culture with a consistent stream of trends, dance routines, and interesting transitions that have occupied our time when we have nothing better to do. On TikTok, anything can go viral if done in an interesting way. Even a video game. No, scratch that…especially a video game.

Currently, Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers is the go-to game for sampling sounds on TikTok, but it seems that app users have found a new game to latch onto. Plus, the game might have a slight advantage over Super Mario Bros, because it incorporates elements that young TikTokers love: a library of dope songs, wild looking characters to inspire cosplay, and a battle format as exciting as Street Fighter. Get ready to enter TikTok’s ‘Friday Night Funkin’ Trend!

How did the ‘Friday Night Funkin’ trend start?

The trend itself is based on the rhythm-based battle rap video game called Friday Night Funkin‘ that premiered on the entertainment website Newgrounds and the web-based interface GitHub in 2020. For those unfamiliar with these two platforms and the game itself, let’s do a quick overview.

Newgrounds is an entertainment website and company that was founded by Tom Faulp in 1995 to host user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork composition. It’s a community where people can instantly publish and share their original animation, games, art, or music. In a sense, you can think of it as a more complex YouTube meant for digital creators, animators, and developers to share their wares, so to speak.

It also provides a visitor-driven voting and ranking system of its user-generated submissions, allowing creators to build a following similar to any other social media platform such as Instagram or TikTok.

GitHub is a code hosting platform for version control and collaboration that basically allows people to work together on projects from anywhere. The “Git,” comes from the fact that the web-based interface uses an open source version control software of the same name to allow for those people to make separate changes to the web pages at the same time, allowing for real-time collaboration in building and editing content.

History lesson aside, let’s get into the game.

What is the ‘Friday Night Funkin’ game?

Friday Night Funkin‘ started out as an open-source donationware rhythm game developed by a team of Newgrounds users during a game jam — an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. 

After Newgrounds users Cameron ” Ninjamuffin99″ Taylor, David “PhantomArcade” Brown, Isaac “Kawai Sprite” Garcia, and the unknown “evilsk8r” came together, the four created a game that not only incorporated elements from Newgrounds history, but also attracted new users to the Newgrounds website.

Friday Night Funkin‘ includes a roster generally composed of characters from external media on the Newgrounds site and revolves around the player character Boyfriend, who must defeat a variety of characters in singing and rapping contests in order to date his love interest, Girlfriend. In the gameplay, the battle revolves around mimicking the opponent’s notes with timed inputs while avoiding running out of health for the duration of the song.

In essence, the characters don’t really use any vocals, they simply “beep” and “boop” inadvertently in a rhythmic pattern while trying to outdo the other — reminiscent of games like PaRappa the Rapper and Dance Revolution.

At first, the demo only contained a handful of music tracks when it premiered in 2020. Since then, it has been updated periodically with additional menus, options, and dozens of new tunes through Newgrounds and Github. As of April 2021, six updates have been released, each including new stages.

Over the past two years, interest in the game has grown exponentially, with a growing quickly and notoriety on Newgrounds after receiving significant attention on other platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. 

And now, the popular game has made its way to TikTok, where users are paying tribute in a way that is blowing up on the social media app. 

What is Friday Night Funkin’ doing on TikTok? 

Lately, TikTokers have used the battle themed tunes and the various characters of Friday Night Funkin to post comedy montages, reaction videos, skits, cosplays and transitions to pay respects to the underground game. 

The trend has also inspired other animators to create their own video game themed shorts featuring FNF characters interacting with other recognizable characters from popular shows while using some of the game’s most infectious tracks. 

Thanks to the exposure on TikTok, more fans have begun to play the game, leading to many requests for a full version. After the game’s Week 7 update was released on Newgrounds, the site crashed and was unavailable for several days due to an overwhelming increase in traffic. In the beginning of 2021, Ninjamuffin99 requested gaming giant Nintendo to support Friday Night Funkin‘ on Nintendo switch. Unfortunately he was denied due to the game being incomplete.

Since then, Ninjamuffin99 and the other developers have launched a Kickstarter in the hopes of turning Friday Night Funkin’ into an actual game, which they have tentatively titled, Friday Night Funkin’: The Full Ass Game for now. Ultimately, the Kickstarter impressively raised over $2 million and thanks to its success, the developers are currently focusing their efforts on creating the full game. 

Photo via @preppyclaws/TikTok

A rising star on TikTok is turning heads, due in large part to their thoroughly unique approach to creating content.

User @preppyclaws is taking the platform by storm, collecting an impressive 2.5 million followers in a single month. The creator’s very first video was posted to TikTok on Dec. 6, 2021, but their follower count doesn’t reflect the lifespan of Skelly — as fans like to call them — on the app. New followers are flocking to the fresh-faced account, drinking in Skelly’s unique brand with gusto.

At a base level, the content produced by @preppyclaws’ account isn’t overly uncommon. All the videos posted to their account — of which there are only a few dozen — see the quirky user provide brief, typically Vine-length dancing clips, all while outfitted in a now-iconic skeleton costume. The costume has become Skelly’s brand, of sorts, keeping users guessing about their identity, gender, and the aims of their popular TikTok account.

Who is preppyclaws?

The true identity behind the preppyclaws account has yet to be revealed, according to Dexerto. That’s not stopping users from submitting plenty of guesses, of course, tossing out potential names in nearly every video’s comment section.

Skelly’s eccentric approach to creating content is a big draw behind the account, as every aspect of their identity remains a secret. The skeleton suit, which provides full-body coverage for the mysterious creator, aids immensely in their aim to conceal their identity. Its shape helps to maintain the account as belonging to a genderless, identity-less, dancing skeleton.

The mystery surrounding this account is behind much of its popularity. People are delighting in the chance to submit their guesses as to the face behind the mask, with a few popular options floated more often than others. Some of the most popular guesses as to Skelly’s identity include Elliana Walmsley, former Dance Moms contestant and a TikTok star in her own right. She has an account of her own, which is verified, and sports almost double the followers of the preppyclaws account.

Other potential names that viewers are tossing around include Emily Dobson, a dancer and social media personality, Lilliana Ketchman, a former Dance Moms contestant, and Charli D’Amelio, one of TikTok’s biggest stars. D’Amelio appears to be the most popular guess, likely because she, more than anyone else, has good reason to hide her face. If she were looking for an opportunity to simply enjoy a quick, effortless dance sesh, doing so without revealing her identity might make sense. While D’Amelio seems to enjoy the spotlight she now finds herself in, it’s not difficult to imagine that she — and anyone famous, for that matter — might appreciate the occasional break from the limelight.

Walmsley confirmed in a recent YouTube video that she is definitely not the face behind Skelly’s recognizable mask, but did reveal that she knows Skelly’s identity. That eliminates Walmsley as an option but increases the likelihood that a fellow Dance Moms contestant hides beneath the mask.

Skelly’s gender is another big question — not that it’s necessarily relevant to the content the account puts out — but the account seems to have confirmed that a woman is behind the popular videos. Several captions have referred to Skelly as “her,” and one notes that she felt “like a boss lady.” A single video also provides a bare glimpse at the back of Skelly’s head, where a small chunk of long blonde hair can be seen. While plenty of male creators sport long blonde hair, the look is more typically sported by women.

Regardless of who resides behind the mask, Skelly is absolutely thriving on TikTok. Their follower count is growing daily, and may soon put them in competition with accounts that have been around far longer. They also seem to be thoroughly enjoying their anonymity, even teasing one curious commenter with a joking reveal of their pronouns. In response to a comment requesting a gender reveal, they joked that their pronouns are “Skel/Eton.”

TikTok is trendsetting yet again, as more and more people adopt the “mop top” hairstyle popularized on the video-sharing app.

The do, which existed long before TikTok launched its very first video, has seen a resurgence as several popular TikTok stars adopt the hairstyle. Several big names, including Bryce Hall, Noah Beck, and Noah Schnapp, have sported the hairdo over the last several years, prompting a slew of smaller creatives to mimic the style.

It’s been a few years since the hairstyle first appeared on TikTok, but it remains one of the app’s more popular go-to styles. Thankfully, pulling the mop top hairstyle off is pretty simple, meaning you can try it out yourself if you are so inclined.

How to pull off the mop top hairstyle

First off, let’s broadly assume that very few people on TikTok have the innate hairstyling abilities to pull this off at home. So definitely schedule a visit to your favorite hairstylist if you’re looking to try out the mop top look, and let them work their magic.

The mop top style is a boyish and slightly shaggy look that features longer hair on top of the head, gradually shortening the hair down the sides. As noted by Dexerto, you can look at the style as a distant cousin to the undercut, one that demands a good amount less in the way of upkeep.

An Aug. 2020 video from YouTuber The Salon Guy gives an excellent breakdown of how to pull off the look, which he calls the “biggest hair trend on TikTok.” In the video, he walks viewers through the process of acquiring the look from a stylist’s perspective. He begins by slowly cutting down the hair on the back of the head, shortening it until it’s between half an inch and a full inch, before working his way to the sides and top. The hair on the sides of the head should be as short as the hair at the very base of the neck before gradually lengthening to the far longer locks on the top of the head.

The hair on top of the head also varies in length, however, ensuring that this very simple-looking hairstyle is actually pretty complicated. The Salon Guy, whose real name is Stephen Marinaro, explains that the hair near the back of the head’s top should be around 3 inches long but should lengthen as it goes forward. The hair near the front of the head often reaches down past the bridge of the nose, as pointed out by Marinaro, but is styled upward, so it appears far shorter.

Noting that the haircut requires a transition from “very neat” into “very very messy” in order to work, Marinaro explains that the style demands a “tapered flow into an absolute, just, mess.”

The key to making the “mop” portion of the style — aka the very top — work, according to Marinaro, is “connecting the layers, and making sure that every single hair is layered.” This gives it the texture it needs to give the style a purposefully messy look, instead of an untamed one.

“Even though it looks like an absolute mess, that’s the look.”