TikTokTrends Week: 20

December 7th - December 13th

Hi!

It has been 20 weeks of TikTokTrends, and we only have three weeks until 2021. It has been a crazy year and an even crazier 20 weeks. Glad to have you here!

This week I will be talking about #SupremeCourt, #Omegle, and #JackBlack.

Let's Start!

#SupremeCourt

On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit from Texas attorney general, which was also supported by Trump, that aimed to block millions of ballots in battleground states that favored Joe Biden. The lawsuit sought to bar Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin from casting their electoral votes for Biden.

The lawsuit was being pumped up by Trump and his supporters as the extraordinary case that will for sure overturn the election in their favor. On TikTok, many Trump supporters expressed their high hope for the supreme court decision and how it will be the ‘2020 grand finale.'

The video above was watched over 400 thousand times. It features a tweet from the Daily Caller, saying that 'Amy Comey Barret joined the majority to reject the Texas-led lawsuit.' As dramatic music from Star Wars can be heard playing in the background, the content creator comes up and lip-syncs to quotes from Obi-Wan Kenobi as he says goodbye to Anakin Skywalker: "You were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them!" referencing Amy Comey Barret’s ‘betrayal.’

The supreme court decision was met with protests in Washington, D.C., throughout the weekend, and videos of the rally were shared on TikTok. A well-known conservative content creator, Topher, shared a video of himself and Bryson Gray, the musician who created the song Trump is your President, on stage at the Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. Other videos of the rally show the Proud Boys chanting 'F*** Antifa' together with a large crowd behind them.

The rallies ended violently, with 33 people arrested, several people injured, with stabbings happening in areas near the White House, and at least nine people were transferred to the hospital.

Following the supreme court decision, #Texit started to gain attention on TikTok. The hashtag was fueled by Texas GOP chair Allen West's call for a new 'union' of 'law-abiding states.' Some took it seriously, adding the State of New California and New Nevada, which are groups that have declared independence from the rest of the states to the mix. Others took Texit less seriously, asking what would happen to their Federal loans.

Not all right-leaning content creators are still denying the election results. There are some content creators that can be seen focusing on the future, saying ‘don’t worship a politician.’ I hope that more conservative creators will stop spreading false hope to their following, and I also hope that Trump will do the same.

#Omegle

Omegle is an online platform focusing on meeting random people. The website uses webcams and a text-based chatting system to allow two participants to talk to each other. The website is generally known for its explicit sexual content, mainly male genitalia(it's a safe link, don't worry). Omegle can be a toxic environment, not only for the sexual content, but anonymity can sometimes bring the worst out of people.

On TikTok, right and left-leaning content creators used Omegle to start a conversation with each other; most failed.

The video above has gotten over 700 thousand views and over 2 thousand comments. It was posted by Nick Foster, a conservative TikTok content creator that often uses satire and mockery in his videos. In the video above, Foster is asked if he is a BLM supporter while on an Omegle chat. He answers, 'fight the power!' To the surprise of the person he is talking to, he then says, "I just want a free PS5," referencing the looting that happened during some of the BLM protests this year.

Foster is known for creating offensive content on TikTok. He has recently been showcasing all the videos taken down by TikTok for various violations of the TikTok Community Guidelines. He has made fun of LGBTQ rights and has talked about how he feels about using different pronouns and, of course, the BLM. Foster has said that he loves haters and loves getting people angry.

The Omegle videos on TikTok are not limited to political content; many content creators, especially during the pandemic, have started to use free platforms like Omegle to talk with random people and create videos with them. These two videos by Joe Mele and his father went viral on TikTok this week, collectively getting over 14 million views.

The account is mainly known for the comedic videos the father-son duo makes together. Videos of dressing up the 'enraged' father to undressing him to recreate a childhood picture can be seen on their account. The father-son content creators rose to fame with the father dressing up as Anton Ego from Ratatouille, the Disney movie, a couple of months ago. Since then, they have been dressing up as numerous characters from famous movies and TV shows.

#JackBlack

This week a video of teacher Miss Sutherd went viral on TikTok. This time, it is not about the video, but the comments; check it out:

The video starts with Miss Sutherd explaining what happened in her class on that day. She says her students found her TikTok videos and said that they have a new challenge for her. The challenge was to:

1 - Get an NFL team to comment on a video.

2- Get Jack Black, the actor, to comment, "Hi, miss Sutherd's Class."

3- Finally, they said she needed to get 12 thousand shares.

29 million views, 6.6 million likes, and 198 thousand shares later, we have a comment from several NFL teams and a comment from Jack Black himself saying, "Hi, miss Sutherd's Class." Various NFL teams, including the Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, and Tennessee Titans, can be seen in the video's comment section.

As a side note, Jack Black's TikTok page is hilarious. His last video is called Jack on Jack on Jack on Jack… and it is definitely worth watching all the Jack’s on top of each other.

In Other News

#TeamHalo aims to connect scientists with the world. On TikTok, the hashtag has gotten over 27 million views. The coalition has a website with a long list of scientists and their social media accounts. Videos on TikTok range from giving information about the vaccine and trials conducted to comedic clips that accurately detail the vaccine. The Team Halo project was started in partnership with The Vaccine Confidence Project at the University of London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Shout-out to Marcus Bösch's newsletter, which focuses on TikTok-related information, for reminding me about this!

TikTok was named at the top of the best performing brands of 2020. The AdAge, a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media, has published a list of the best performers in the marketing industry of the year. With over 100 million active users, the app has overperformed expectations and has earned a place in the list of top-performing brands.

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That is all for this week! I would love to hear your comments about my newsletter. Let me know what you think by hitting reply to this email or sending me a DM through Twitter!

Thank you for reading, hope to see you next week, on Sunday!