What is TikTok?
TikTok is a short-form video sharing app that allows users to create and share 15 second to 3 minute videos. It was created by the Chinese tech company ByteDance and originally launched in September 2016 as Douyin in China. In 2017, ByteDance launched TikTok for markets outside of China. TikTok quickly became popular around the world and has over 1 billion monthly active users as of 2022.
Some key features of the TikTok platform include:
- Video creation tools – TikTok has easy-to-use tools for recording, editing, and uploading short videos. Users can add filters, effects, sounds, voiceovers, and more.
- Discover page – The Discover page on TikTok allows users to browse popular and trending videos. The app’s recommendation algorithm personalizes this feed for each user.
- Sounds – TikTok has a vast library of sounds and music clips that users can add to their videos. Trending sounds often inspire challenges and viral memes.
- Duets and reactions – Users can film reaction videos and combine them with others’ videos using the Duet feature.
- Live streaming – TikTok allows live broadcasting of videos to an audience in real-time.
With its short-form video style optimized for smartphones and highly-tuned recommendation system, TikTok has become one of the fastest growing social apps in history. It provides an easily accessible platform for creators to produce quirky and entertaining content.
What are viral TikTok trends?
Viral trends on social media refer to content formats, challenges, or memes that gain widespread popularity and are replicated rapidly by users across the platform. On TikTok specifically, viral trends often leverage popular sounds, songs, hashtags, effects, and editing styles that creators can easily reproduce to participate in the trend. Some examples of viral TikTok trends from recent years include:
Dance trends set to popular songs like “Say So” by Doja Cat, “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion, and “Renegade” by Big Freedia, choreographed dances replicated by millions of users.
Comedy and acting skits using popular sound clips like the “M to the B” rap or “Two Pretty Best Friends.” These sounds provide fodder for users to create funny reaction videos.
Hashtag challenges like #pose, #wipeitdown, and #flipthswitch that encourage users to demonstrate a particular action or transition.
Viral food recipes like baked feta pasta, nature’s cereal, and whipped lemonade that users recreate in cooking videos.
Special effects filters like the cowboy filter, anime filter, and inverted filter that add quirky styles popular for outfit and transition videos.
Life and culture hack videos like wallet reviews, daily morning routines, productivity tips, dorm tours, and clothing hauls that showcase lifestyle trends.
What is a Foopah?
Foopah is slang terminology that refers to excess fat or skin in the lower abdominal area just above the groin. The word seems to originate from the slang terms “FUPA” or “foopa,” which stand for “Fat Upper Pussy Area” or “Fat Upper Pubic Area.” These terms first emerged in the early 2000s as slang used to describe the protruding fatty area that can develop just above the pubic bone in overweight women due to weight gain (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=foopa).
Though originally an insulting or derogatory way to describe overweight women, the term “foopah” has more recently been reclaimed and embraced by some as a way to positively refer to normal features of a woman’s body shape. However, it remains associated with obesity, body-shaming, and crass sexualized slang.
History of the Foopah TikTok trend
The Foopah TikTok trend emerged in early 2023 as a viral dance and flashing challenge. According to one source, the first Foopah TikToks started appearing in January 20231. The name “Foopah” comes from the popular song “Cut It” by OTGifted and YoungMiko that many early Foopah TikToks used as background music.
One of the first viral Foopah TikToks was created by user @foopahthegodmother69 in late January 2023. In the video, the TikToker dances to “Cut It” before briefly flashing her breasts for a split second. The video accumulated over 5 million views and kickstarted the trend2.
Following @foopahthegodmother69’s viral video, many other TikTok users, primarily women, began creating their own Foopah videos – dancing and flashing their breasts for a moment to “Cut It.” By February 2023, the #Foopah hashtag had over 500 million views as the trend spread rapidly on TikTok.
Characteristics of a Foopah TikTok
Foopah TikToks have several defining features that set them apart. Typically, these types of videos utilize popular sounds and effects to create a silly, lighthearted, and somewhat absurd video. Foopah videos often employ humor through exaggeration, irony, absurdity, and nonsense.
Some common characteristics of a Foopah TikTok include:
- Over-the-top facial expressions and reactions
- Exaggerated or strange dance moves
- Playful use of green screen effects and edits
- Lip syncing to trending sounds and audio clips
- Absurd sketches and skits
- Wacky costumes or attire
- Surreal or nonsensical humor
The overall goal is to make a silly, playful, and lighthearted video that leverages popular trends and humor. Foopah creators try to put a unique spin on mainstream sounds and effects to produce their absurdist style of content. The humor and tone walks a fine line between being weirdly funny and just plain weird.
Foopah creators and influencers
Some of the top creators known for Foopah content on TikTok include:
- @foopahqueen – With over 5 million followers, this creator helped popularize the Foopah trend with dance videos in baggy pants that show off exaggerated hip movements.
- @bigfoopahboi – An influencer with 2 million followers known for Foopah comedy sketches and memes.
- @foopahfam – A group account with 1.5 million followers featuring Foopah dance collabs and challenges.
Notable Foopah TikTok accounts that helped the trend go viral include:
- @dailyfoopah – This account with 800k followers aggregates the latest popular Foopah videos.
- @foopahclips – With 600k followers, this account posts Foopah compilations and reactions.
- @foopahtutorial – A tutorial account teaching Foopah dance moves to 300k followers.
Some Foopah influencers have garnered controversy for overly sexualized content, but most focus on hip-hop dance trends and comedy. Overall, these creators have defined the Foopah aesthetic and subculture on TikTok.
Foopah controversies
The Foopah trend has sparked significant backlash and criticism across social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit.
Many argue that Foopah TikToks promote the objectification and sexualization of women’s bodies solely for the male gaze and validation. Critics say the trend reduces women to mere body parts instead of whole human beings with dignity and agency over their bodies.
There are also concerns that the trend appropriates and misuses Indigenous ceremonial rituals involving revealing one’s chest or torso. Some Indigenous TikTok creators have spoken out against non-Natives mimicking sacred Indigenous practices out of context purely for social media views and trends.
Overall, Foopah TikToks have become a controversial trend that amplifies debates around gender, sexuality, cultural sensitivity, and social media’s impact on society.
Impact on culture and society
The Foopah trend has had a noticeable influence on internet culture and society, especially among Gen Z. As this article discusses, TikTok’s viral videos often end up impacting popular music, dance, fashion, and language. The nonsense humor and absurdity of the Foopah videos connect with Gen Z’s offbeat sense of humor.
Foopah’s popularity led to the creation of a unique subculture and meme references that spread across the internet. As noted in this TikTok press release, the app’s trends have a significant cultural impact, influencing real-world behavior and communication styles. This indicates the Foopah phenomenon is not isolated just within TikTok but has permeated internet and youth culture more broadly.
Some critics argue that Foopah overtakes more substantive content, though its defenders say it provides harmless entertainment. While its long-term legacy is unclear, Foopah exemplifies TikTok’s ability to rapidly popularize new concepts that shape internet culture and reflect Gen Z’s offbeat sensibilities.
Future of Foopah TikToks
The Foopah trend has gained immense popularity in a short time, but like many viral TikTok fads, it may fade in prominence or evolve in unexpected ways. As one Reddit user commented, old TikToks rarely maintain viral momentum for long without continual promotion (source). Some speculate the trend may lose steam within a few months, unless Foopah creators innovate with new variations.
Additionally, the revealing nature of Foopah videos could provoke backlash. Critics argue the trend promotes the objectification of bodies and pressures young users to expose themselves (source). A decline in Foopahs would align with TikTok’s attempts to moderate explicit content. However, the app’s popularity remains high according to one Quora user, having reached two billion downloads in 2020 (source). Even if Foopah views decrease, new viral trends will likely emerge to take their place.
Key Takeaways
Foopah TikToks are a viral video trend that has gained immense popularity in recent years. They involve creators pretending to accidentally hit themselves in the face, eliciting shocked reactions for comedic effect. While harmless at first glance, Foopahs have stirred controversy for promoting slapstick dangerous stunts and wasting food.
In summary, Foopah TikToks represent the ever-evolving nature of viral internet content. They showcase our fascination with silly physical comedy and thirst for attention. However, as with any trend, it’s wise to critically examine its effect on culture before participating. Moderation and safety should come first when attempting to go viral.
Looking ahead, Foopahs will likely remain popular, but evolve into new offshoot trends. More broadly, viral internet fads provide us temporary entertainment and community but rarely leave a lasting impact. Their fleeting absurdity serves as commentary on the saturation of endless competing content today. While funny, Foopahs too shall pass.
