Once upon a time online, people used to eat cinnamon for clout. Now, they slap their mother’s t*ts, apparently.
The internet has long been awash with idiosyncratic trunkloads of completely random jokes. Lest we forget Vine, which pioneered comedy in six-second bursts, paving the way for the rise of TikTok.
With each passing month, the short-form, lip-syncing, music-weaving platform grows more and more powerful, with fresh trends popping up all time (from food colouring to breaking skulls). However, this one is a bit weird.
Aiden Ridings, from Western Australia, wanted to make viral content to gain followers on his TikTok account. The 17-year-old decided to tap into the fad of slapping someone’s boobs in sync with the clapping at the beginning of Undercover Martyn by Two Door Cinema Club.
Ordinarily, the honour of being the breast-slappee would fall to a friend. However, Aiden – for some god-forsaken reason – clearly didn’t see the merit in an outside hire. Why use your friends when you’ve got your mum at home?
On February 18, Aiden posted the video of him slapping her boobs to his account, with both of them laughing in the short eight-second clip. He ended up deleting the video – but one’s online footprint is near-impossible to erase.
Not that Aiden minds at all. For him it’s funny and that’s all that matters, as he explains:
I thought it was really funny and I needed to do the video for laughs on my TikTok page. My mother was open to doing it. The reaction I got online was okay, some people were laughing and some people weren’t but that’s social media.
I don’t mind the criticism because that’s social media too, I thought it was funny and I posted it so others can think it’s funny too. And people say some stuff but I just choose to ignore it.
Twitter user @brndvx reposted the video on his account, which amassed more than four million views and 157,000 likes – unfortunately, people were more horrified by the video than amused.
One user said: ‘White people let their kids get away with anything bruh.’ Another added: ‘The worst part is that this didn’t seem out of pocket to her…..her face really said, Oh Aiden you goofball not again!’ A further user wrote: ‘See my mama would have whooped my ass.’
However, despite the thunderous criticism, Aiden is steadfast in ignoring the flack. For him and his mum, it was a funny video.
I never thought I’d say these words, but please bring back planking. Hell, even the Harlem Shake would be better than this.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.