Tik Tok: Hit or Miss?

How has Tik Tok memes grown since the release of the app?

Before there were Musical.ly and Tik Tok, there was Vine. Vine was the beginning of an era of memes that changed the internet forever.

In January 2017, when Vine shut down, Tik Tok became the new Vine, and at first nobody knew it. The app started off the same as Musical.ly, which was an app that people used to poke fun at the kids who made lip-syncing videos to cringeworthy songs.

Later in 2017, when Musical.ly changed its name to Tik Tok, it was nicknamed ‘Vine 2’. Many people started to create short videos, much like Vine, and were inspired by relevant memes of the time.

The first Tik Tok meme that became a phenomenon was the ‘Hit or Miss” meme, and that video jump started the Tik Tok meme trend. After the release of that video, the audio, a disstrack titled “Mia Khalifa” by ILOVEFRIDAY was commonly used by other people imitating Nyannyancosplay,the creator of the original video.

Soon enough, tons of people on Tik Tok started creating funny meme inspired videos instead of serious lip-dubbing ones, including:

  • The cowboy memes- where people start out dressed as a normal person but then drink from a water bottle that’s labelled “yee yee boy juice” and as the music drops the video transitions to the same person now dressed as a stereotypical cowboy.
  • You was at the club- the latest Tik Tok meme that involves rapper The Boyboy West Coast lip syncing to his own song awkwardly.
  • Dumb Dances- the origin of this category of Tik Tok meme is unknown, but popular audios include Bulletproof by La Roux, Love Me by Justin Bieber, We Know from the musical Hamilton, and many more.

Tik Tok memes are currently  prominent on all forms of social media, and the meme hype has given people fame opportunity.