Social media has become more popular than the internet itself, despite running on top of it.
One of the very few that managed to reach the stratosphere of the industry, is TikTok, the ByteDance-owned company from China that is increasingly popular among youngsters.
Because of the demography, users of TikTok that are mostly young, tend to follow things without hesitation. And that includes following a trend, in order to become the trend.
One of which, is the 'pee your pants challenge'.
Unlike many other challenges that require efforts, time or money, this particular challenge is effortless. People just need to take a video of themselves while exclaiming "pee your pants challenge", and start wetting themselves.
And here, videos of the challenge that demonstrate people actually urinating on themselves, became a hit on TikTok.
The challenge began on April 18 on TikTok from a post by Liam Weyer, which was then re-uploaded three days later due to the platform's removal
The hashtag #peeyourpantschallenge he started has millions of views with many others recreating (and reacting to) the challenge.
TikTok users also used the hashtag to mock or parody the trend itself, either by pretending that they were unable to pee or just appearing horrified at the challenge altogether.
Weyer, the creator of the challenge, is a 19-year-old filmmaker and comedian from Kansas who hopes to have a chance of writing for a TV show one day. He said that he created the challenge simply as a joke that was supposed to be a social commentary on the pointlessness of other challenges that have gained widespread attention.
"I am definitely surprised that the challenge actually became a trend. I created the challenge as a parody of the other challenges that have gone viral on the internet in an attempt to show how pointless they are," Weyer said. "I am surprised to see that people on the internet will pee themselves if you call it a challenge and add a hashtag."
Weyer certainly did not intend others would participate, “but it certainly says a lot about social media, and in particular TikTok's user base.”
Since publication, TikTok again removed Weyer’s video.
“I personally am not worried about this event's effect on my online presence. I am a filmmaker/comedian, which is a unique profession to be in when it comes to the media. For others however, it is possible that they may regret their posts, especially if it comes to have an effect on their real life,” said Weyer
TikTok is a home of a bunch of challenges, sometimes with one that is weirder than the next.
Fortunately for the users, and Weyer himself, the pee your pants challenge isn't at all dangerous, and very much unlike the Keke Challenge where people were robbed, fined, and even arrested, or the BirdBox challenge which caused many unwanted accidents.
But still, the permanency of participatory memes has always been concerning, especially considering their absurdism.
"TikTok is different from any other platform, as its mission is not producing content for consumers, or connecting us to friends. TikTok maintains users by giving people the idea that anyone can be famous. This leads to videos that are not created with any sort of goal in mind other than to gain as many likes as possible,” added Weyer.
"And, many times the content that goes viral is not the content you would want the whole world to see, which I think is a really interesting sort of paradox that I hoped to communicate through my video.”
Read: The Deadly 'Skull Breaker Challenge'. It's Not Funny, Said TikTok
